Jim Blair Shares Insights on Future Direction of Genomics with Investor Business Daily

Jim Blair, Ph.D., a founder of Domain Associates has seen genomics grow from its infancy into the rapidly developing space it is today.  In 1981, as managing director at Rothschild, Inc., Dr. Blair invested funds managed by his firm in the start-up financing for Applied Biosystems, developers of the gene sequencers later used in the Human Genome Project.  Since then, sequencing technologies have improved and become increasingly efficient; resulting in a reduction of the cost of whole-genome sequencing from $10 million to less than $500. While genomics has made great strides, Blair foresees this is merely the beginning of a clinically rewarding development cycle. 

Genome sequencing is at a point where scientists can now begin to learn from the data being collected and build upon that knowledge to improve a vast array of research fields ranging from the human microbiome to rare diseases to cancer biology.  Dr. Blair points out that we still need to have sequencing information from large numbers of individuals, which can be combined with accurate medical histories of the same individuals, in order to understand the full meaning of genomic variations.  As such, genomics has yet to fulfill the promise of providing the richness of diagnostic information that seems to accompany the vision most observers have for the new science. 

From an investment standpoint, Domain continues to focus on companies that are creating the genomic tools that improve diagnostics; making them faster, more affordable, and easily implemented.  

Read more about Jim Blair’s experience investing in genomics and which companies he sees as as innovators. 

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