What You Should Know:
– Professor George Church, co-founder of Nebula Genomics and Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School, will be partnering with GRAMMY-nominated, multi-platinum selling artist, producer, entrepreneur, and philanthropist, Akon and his NFT platform, AkoinNFT, to auction off Professor George Church’s full genome as the world’s first genomic NFT.
– The acclaimed singer and face of Akoin Cryptocurrency and its affiliate AkoinNFT, is thrilled to be collaborating on this one-of-a-kind NFT with Nebula Genomics and George Church for the first ever genomic NFT. Professor George Church’s DNA carries a great deal of historical significance to the field of personal genomics.
– To protect and store the underlying genomic data sold as an NFT, Nebula will leverage Oasis Labs’ Parcel SDK which they currently use to protect many of their customer’s sequenced genome and the underlying decentralized blockchain, the Oasis Network.
What’s An NFT?
An NFT is a non-fungible token, or a unique and irreplaceable representation of a digital or physical object. An NFT represents ownership of this unique asset and is stored on a decentralized blockchain as unmodifiable “proof” of who the owner is. The human genome provides an exciting opportunity for an NFT, as it is a unique encoding of an individual. Each human’s genome is a non-changing representation of their most fundamental and personal data, which is inherently non-fungible.
The human genome is the complete set of nucleic acid sequences, encoded as DNA, and is made up of 3 billion base-pairs. As the pioneer of human genomics, Professor Church’s genome is one of the first genomes to ever be completely sequenced, and one of the most studied genomes in existence. This auction will also include a single-issue physical and digital artwork to accompany and celebrate his genome. George has dedicated his career to using genomic data to advance personalized medicine for better health outcomes for humanity.
This launch is significant because:
– Historically, genomic and health data have been monetized with a lack of transparency. Patients and consumers rarely have full insights into who has access to their data.
– The rise of blockchain and NFTs however, have enabled a new model for how data can be owned and monetized.
– Professor George Church’s DNA carries a great deal of historical significance to the field of personal genomics and to protect/store the underlying genomic data sold as an NFT, Nebula will leverage Oasis Labs’ Parcel SDK which they currently use to protect many of their customer’s sequenced genome and the underlying decentralized blockchain, the Oasis Network.
– The NFT for George’s genome will be depicted as a high-res artistic representation of his genome and likeness. Additionally, this NFT will encode the digital location of George’s full genomic data, hosted on the Oasis Network.
– The highest bidder on Church’s NFT will take ownership of this NFT representation, as well as the proof of ownership of this genomic data. Customers will also have the opportunity to receive Nebula’s 30x whole genome sequencing of their personal DNA when purchasing the NFT.
Why It Matters
By auctioning off his genome as an NFT, Nebula Genomics, Professor Church and AkoinNFT are kick-starting a conversation around fair and transparent ways to monetize and share health data. A portion of the profits will be donated to rare-disease research.
We’re thrilled to see the Oasis Parcel SDK and the Oasis Network used to tokenize George’s sequenced genome” said Anne Fauvre, COO of Oasis Labs. “We envision Parcel and the Oasis Network, with its ability to tokenize numerous classes of off-chain assets, as the ideal platform for securing the next generation of NFTs.”
More details about the auction will be announced shortly. The auction will be held on Thursday, June 10, 2021.
