Two personal genome app marketplaces—Sequencing.com (San Francisco, Calif.) and Helix (San Carlos, Calif.)—are now up and running offering consumers a combined total of 55 products for purchase. While both companies are optimistic about the potentially explosive growth of the nascent industry, analysts still question the sustainability of initial demand, how regularly curious customers will engage with these apps, and how the marketplaces will overcome privacy concerns and the challenge of reliably, yet simply, communicating complex information. "Genomics apps are very much an emerging market," Brandon Colby M.D., the founder and CEO of Sequencing.com, tells DTET. "We launched Sequencing.com not even a year ago and it has grown very rapidly because of demographics. Millions of people have had their genomes sequenced, and they want added value beyond that initial result. The full value has not been unlocked and they are trying to find it." Sequencing.com In addition to providing tools to curious consumers, Sequencing.com seeks to solve many of the challenges early players in the sequencing field face. The company says it provides researchers a source of genetic data through customers ("altruists") who donate their genetic data and provides laboratories a secure storage solution for all of their genetic data. Sequencing.com […]