Earlier quoted context omitted.
At scale?
I'm curious whether a Covid PCR test could be used to sequence your DNA. Is there enough of a specimen in the process.
Absolutely.
Sequencing your DNA with a USB dongle and open source code
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Re: Sequencing your DNA with a USB dongle and open source code
#72So, how long before I can take my DNA "ROM" file and boot it in an emulator that would allow it to grow?
it's unlikely we would ever be able to achieve this. Even simulating a single cell at high resolution is a serious challenge.
It's likely that you don't have to simulate even a single cell at high resolution to be able to simulate how an organism would grow. There are numerical shortcuts.
For example today we can already predict the color of the eyes and other phenotype from the DNA.
If you are able to observe enough samples of cell growth and their associated DNA, you probably can model and predict the statistics of a cell from their DNA. Because the cell is itself the result of a lot of chemical processes, the law of large number will help smooth those statistics.
Given that we have a lot of cells, the collective behavior is probably entirely governed by these statistics.
Re: Sequencing your DNA with a USB dongle and open source code
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
Imagine insurers refusing to give you a service due to your predisposition to certain diseases...
If you haven't seen Gattaca, you should
There should be a directors cut where the mission fails because of Vincent's hidden heart condition.
Gattaca shows eugenics has been so vilified that the audience will root for a character who selfishly commits fraud, risking lives and scientific progress for his own vanity.
The really scary fact is that there would be no need for a police state and segregation. The genetically enhanced would just completely dominate an open and fair competition.
Re: Sequencing your DNA with a USB dongle and open source code
#74How does it get the DNA to go through the hole?
Re: Sequencing your DNA with a USB dongle and open source code
#75I'm really curious about what I could learn by getting my DNA sequenced, but I'm worried about my rights to not have it recorded and shared without my consent if I got someone else to do it for me - so any advance toward an affordable home test setup is very welcome.
Note that you are literally shedding identifiable DNA from your body at all times and a truly motivated adversary would have no problem obtaining enough sample material to do high quality sequencing.
The data monopolies and abuse originate from people giving these companies data for free. If they had to buy it, or pay goons to collect it, they wouldn't be profitable.
Re: Sequencing your DNA with a USB dongle and open source code
#76How does it get the DNA to go through the hole?
Initially, the DNA is brought near the pore through diffusive (brownian) motion + any small attraction it'll have to the membrane. Close to the pore it uses a combination of the electrophoretic and electro-osmotic effects to draw the DNA molecules through. The application of an external magnetic field will cause the charged DNA molecules to migrate along the field (electrophoresis). This is independent of the fluid, and happens to any ions under voltage. The electro-osmotic flow, on the other hand, is a motion of the fluid itself, pulling the DNA molecules along with it. EOF is a really interesting phenomenon which is caused by the interaction between the surface chemistry (vis-a-vis charge distribution) and the concentration gradient of charge carriers in the fluid. I'd recommend Fundamentals and Application of Microfluidics by Nguyen et al if you're looking for a good primer on electrically induced flows in microfluidics.
Re: Sequencing your DNA with a USB dongle and open source code
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
Imagine insurers refusing to give you a service due to your predisposition to certain diseases...
It's amazing how many problems you avoid by having public health system.
You avoid the problem with medical debt, to be precise.
You cannot really avoid the fundamental constraints - anywhere in the world, there are only so many doctors and so much money available for treatments. IDK if USA has a shortage of doctors, but plenty of European countries do. A country like Romania just cannot give its doctors big enough wages to stop them from seeking employment elsewhere, where they will get five to ten times as much (UK, Germany, Switzerland). As a result, local hospitals are seriously understaffed.
Where I live, having personal connections to good doctors gives you an advantage - you will be examined and treated faster. Then there is outright nepotism.
The outgroups are different than in America, but there are always people for whom the system sucks.
Re: Sequencing your DNA with a USB dongle and open source code
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
A qubit or fluorometer isn't required. You can use a simple DNA ladder to measure the relative quantity and quality of DNA that's good enough for nanopore sequencing. I just did a full genome sequence of a novel fungus using this exact approach.
Huh, interesting. Did you fragment? I’d imagine comparison of high weight gDNA wouldn’t be too nice on a gel. You also still, in that case, need a gelbox + ladder + loading dye + sybrsafe or whatever, so it’s still not nothing.
I did a HMW extraction kit on the DNA and used a gel to estimate the volume of HMW DNA. Yes, you need to be able to run a gel, but I'm not sure what the expectation is from folks; that you just place a random piece of non-sterile tissue on a chip and have it do the extraction, sequencing and assembly? That seems like an unrealistic expectation.
Re: Sequencing your DNA with a USB dongle and open source code
#79I'm really curious about what I could learn by getting my DNA sequenced, but I'm worried about my rights to not have it recorded and shared without my consent if I got someone else to do it for me - so any advance toward an affordable home test setup is very welcome.
When I had 23andme sequence my DNA, I used a fake last name and pre-paid credit card.
Re: Sequencing your DNA with a USB dongle and open source code
#80DNA sequencing bugs me quite a bit. On one hand, I would love to learn something new about my body. On the other hand, what if the results tell me that I am predisposed to some horrible untreatable disease? Will I spend the rest of my days observing every little pain or discomfort and thinking "is this IT?"
well, build a whitelist of the conditions you are interested in knowing. then just run the report through a sed filter so that it strips out all the information you’re not interested in. destroy the original report. problem solved: infohazards avoided.