Silicon Valley may have coined the ‘big data’ buzzword, but genomic scientists have been working with massive datasets for decades. Due to recent breakthroughs in DNA sequencing technology, genetics is moving from the laboratory into the market, and just about everyone is taking a keen interest.
In January, President Obama requested $215 million to fund his precision medicine initiative — $130 million to back a national research program that will track the data of 1 million volunteer donors, and another $70 million for a National Cancer Institute initiative to identify the genetic drivers of cancer.