Sergey Brin found out that he had inherited from his mother a mutation of a gene called LRRK2. This presence gives him a larger chance of developing Parkinson’s Disease. Google has also invested in 23andme, which by now everyone might be aware of since it was Sergey’s wife who started the company.
Not too long ago I did a post about a woman who found some genomic information a while back, but didn’t acknowledge it and it came back later to haunt here.
The Burden of Knowing – Genetic Sequencing and what you might find out
“I was invited to have one of my genes sequenced as part of a Dana-Farber Cancer Institute study. The gene in question is known as BRCA1; a mutation on that gene means a woman has, on average, a 60 to 80 percent greater chance of getting an aggressive form of breast cancer, and a 40 percent chance of developing ovarian cancer.”
Steve Pinker from Harvard also wrote up how he dealt with and feels about the information he received.
So coming back around to knowledge, it is something we all need to be aware of today and how we handle information and make choices is still up to us to choose how to use it wisely. For Sergey it is an awareness right now and how he chooses to use the information is his decision of course, but he has some potential warnings he stated, again to be aware of. BD
Like many in Silicon Valley, Google's founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page believe that ignorance is never bliss.
That is why the founding principle of Google, the most successful technology company on the planet, is to make the world's information universally accessible and useful. In particular Mr Brin and Mr Page have always had an interest in health data, believing that if people were better informed about diseases and how to prevent them, and researchers and doctors were given more powerful computational tools, the world would be a better place.
The massive profits from Google's search engine advertising business have allowed them to invest many millions of dollars in health research via the company's philanthropic arm Google.org . The charity has invested more than $100 million dollars in a variety of projects under such headings as "predict and prevent" and "inform and empower".
Google's Sergey Brin and Larry Page harness data to fight disease - Times Online
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