

Biomeme Could Turn Your iPhone Into a Tiny Disease-Detecting Lab - tuxguy
http://www.wired.com/2014/08/biomeme/

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xkcd-sucks
where to begin...

Building the device to require a smartphone is such a bad idea. The same
functionality (battery, light detector, datalogging) could be added for
negligible cost.

It seems like involving an iphone is simply a way to capitalize on the
credulity of naive investors.

RT-PCR is notoriously difficult to do well. This is because RNA is unstable
and nucleases (which destroy RNA) are a ubiquitous environmental contaminant.
People that work with RNA typically set aside clean rooms and dedicated tools
for working with samples. Can we expect users of this product to be careful
re: cleanliness?

The reason 23andMe works is because its data is good, and the reason its data
is good is because they generate it themselves (and, they're working with DNA,
not with RNA).

The operating cost is mostly consumable stuff: Enzymes and DNA primers. DNA is
cheap and stable, but the enzymes (reverse transcriptase, dna polymerase) are
expensive and unstable. Will the device contain an integrated -20C freezer to
store the enzymes? Has the company found a supplier of enzymes that are super
cheap and of an acceptable quality? If so, lots of people in the research
community will want to know.

~~~
gone35
Spot on. It's interesting how one of the original goals of the technical co-
founders was to develop an open diagnostics hardware platform for the research
community.

Perhaps a consortium-type non-profit structure would have been a better fit,
incentive-wise.

