A $1 billion project to decode the DNA of 100,000 people will be undertaken by Harvard University scientist George Church with the backing of Google and OrbiMed Advisors. Dr. Church’s project will focus on tying each subject’s DNA to their health history in order to create a database with which to develop new medicines. The project will be in competition with a collaborative effort between the US, UK, China and Sweden that will cost $50 million and will require 1,000 subjects. Also helping with Dr. Church’s endeavor are Helicos BioSciences and Applied Biosystems. No stranger to genomics, Google donated $3.9 million to the company 23andme, which provides genomic data to individuals, in 2006. This month, the company introduced Google Health, a service for managing medical records and test results.

Source: Bloomberg