They are not associated, although yes they are quite similar. DNA11 (a cool service) is really focused on just a business around selling art, while Kishan has bigger plans -- art is just a logical first step in visualizations.
As personalized medicine becomes more mainstream, it will be important to use accurate terminology in general overviews like OP's website.
For example, 23andme does not provide DNA sequencing. Instead, they evaluate samples against a comprehensive panel of small nucleotide polymorphisms. This "fingerprinting" is informative and actionable, but not technically sequencing.
In the same way, I doubt whether Genetik Ink will actually "take your DNA, sequence it, and turn it into an artistic representation" for <$500 (full genome sequencing is still $5000+, though dropping quickly in cost).
That is a good point. What we do is Sanger sequencing. This is sequencing of up to 500bp of DNA and not the whole genome. This type of sequencing is much more affordable.
It's interesting to see how the word "Design" is getting a more and more specific definition related to people and cognition.
As an engineer, I'm starting to be forced to call my designs "engineering designs", because people already associate "design" only with visual/industrial/interaction design.
I guess this is a cool business idea. The science of decoding the genome into useful information is still in its infancy (I think). This means that right now having your genome sequence is of limited use because there will so much of your genome that we don't understand yet (again, I could be mistaken).
These individuals have found a way take this developing technology and sell it. Kudos to them.
Does anyone know what type of sequencing technology they are using? Would the authors care to share?
The unspoken story here is that Science Exchange is more than just a resource for scientists. It also lowers the entry barrier for scientific start-ups.
Oh, they talk big about communicating with the patient. But what they actually want to do is take some of the _most private data I could ever provide_ and make a PICTURE out of it.
You bring up a good point. We have a privacy policy in which our lab does not know the name of the customer through the entire process ensuring confidentiality. We also delete your DNA after 30 days when your guarantee expires. Finally to ensure your identity protection, we do not sequence your entire DNA. We only sequence a portion. You can think of this as only having the first four digits of a credit card. To actually have an even better idea, imagine only having one digit of your credit card. That's the amount of DNA that is sequenced in respect to the entire human genome. When taking these measures into consideration, we believe the issue of personal identification becomes non-relevant.
Is this service affiliated with DNA11? This service seems very similar, right down to sizes, pricing, and colour options.
They also provide DNA canvas art. ( https://www.dna11.com )