501derful.org
I found the web site of the Personal Genome Project (PGP) while I was looking for genome research that could be applied to cancer prevention and treatment someday. I tried to look deeper into who sponsors the site and why, and discovered that the Harvard Molecular Technology Group & Lipper Center for Computational Genetics is promoting this effort.
The Harvard site says when contacting this group: It would be helpful if you mention your fields of interest or expertise and whether you are interested in being a donor of advice, funds, genome, and/or phenome. Quoting from the overview – some interesting items to ponder: "While the PGP costs are dropping very rapidly, the research and development are high and deserve our support. Current R&D efforts include: (1) higher accuracy, (2) lower costs, (3) user-friendly software, (4) security for private genomes, (5) enhanced access for public genomes, (6) statistical association of genotype, environment, and phenotypes, (7) Ethical, legal and social impacts (ELSI). Part of the personal environmental data will entail "pathogen/allergen weather maps" tracking the spread of recurring and emergent infectious agents in analogy to how we currently track weather for broad audiences. Eventually to get excellent statistics, PGP may require millions of volunteers. Possibly after an initial trial with dozens of volunteers, some fraction of this PGP will transition to a more private model, but only if this is the desire of the volunteers and/or scientific communities. If you would like to help raise funds for general R&D or for specific purposes please contact us."
