This Japanese Startup Is Bringing The Human Genome to The Mass Market

Right now, it looks like the most profitable business models that are emerging from the mapping of the human genome are not in the field of medicine, but in a variety of B2C business models focused on consumer marketing. That may be a surprising claim, but if the past 40 years of life sciences have taught us anything, it's that our genetic information will be both more valuable and harder to understand than we expect it to be. Today, I’d like you to meet Tomohiro Takano, CEO and founder of Awakens.  Awakens is opening up the genome to make it more accessible and understandable to you and me. They are designing a genetic marketplace that will serve both B2B and B2C clients, and they are working with other startups to develop applications that will leave some readers impressed and excited, and others appalled and concerned. So it’s probably best to let Tomo tell you about it. Show Notes Why people will share their DNA information How to choose your customers as a genetics startup Why developing B2B clients is different in Japan and the US Why people you would not suspect want access to your genome The true accuracy of consumer DNA analysis DNA for dating and social networking What an accelerator must do to validate a startup Why there are so few life sciences startups in Japan Links from the Founder Everything you wanted to know about Awakens Tomo's genetics blog (Japanese) Follow Tomo on twitter @mr3tiago Friend him on Facebook Genome Link Online Hackathon [shareaholic app="share_buttons" id="7994466"] Leave a comment Transcript Welcome to Disrupting Japan, straight talk from Japan's most successful entrepreneurs. I'm Tim Romero and thanks for joining me. Today, we're going to be talking about mining the genome, because if the last 40 years of life-sciences has taught us anything, it's that the information we take from our DNA is always more valuable than we think it's going to be, and why wouldn't it be? I mean, innovation and efficiency, and profit, and money in general are all just proxies for some greater and deeper human need. Most innovation is a more efficient means to the same ends, but DNA, well, that's different. That is who we are. It literally defines us, so naturally, it's something we all care about deeply whether we know it or not. Today, I'd like you to meet Tomohiro Takano, CEO and founder of Awakens, and Awakens is trying to open up the genome and to make it more accessible and understandable to you and me. How exactly they plan on making money doing that, well, Tomo will explain in just a moment. It's a combination of a B2B and B2C DNA marketplace that some listeners will find exciting and some will find it infuriating. But you know, Tomo tells that story much better than I can. So let's get right to the interview. [pro_ad_display_adzone id="1411"  info_text="Sponsored by"  font_color="grey"  ]  [Interview] Tim: Cheers! Tomohiro: Cheers! Thanks. Tim: We are sitting here with Tomo Takano of Awakens, a genomic startup here in Tokyo, so thanks for sitting down with us. Tomohiro: Yeah, it's my pleasure to be here today. Tim: Okay, let's do a quick overview of what Awakens is. So you developed the Genome Link software and you say you have a vision of everyone being able to access their own DNA data. Why would we want to do that? Tomohiro: We create a service called Genome Link which is the kind of API solution for companies to develop their own DNA personalized products. So we see that in the near future, in five or 10 years, every single people will have access to their own DNA data then make use of that data for like, they are choosing in fitness, nutrition, food, medicine. Tim: Does Awakens do the DNA testing as well or do you just link to work that's been done by like, Ancestors or 23AndMe? Tomohiro: Right, so at this point, we are simply focusing on existing genetic testing users, so we don't do the sequencing operation because in United States, there is already 10 million genetic testing users, then uniqueness of US market is actually this user can download their data, then this user actually looking for the opportunity to make use of the data by accessing to other products. Tim: Tell me about your customers. Who are your customers in this model? Is it the software companies who are making new software that can take advantage of this genetic information, or is it consumers who want to explore their own genome? Tomohiro: Sure, so basically, we are trying to connect both users and companies, so right now, everyday, 100 people uploading their DNA data to our platform so we come out like, 100 genetic traits information, some are covered by 23AndMe or other genetic testing products. So people are looking for the opportunity to know more, right? Tim: What sort of traits are people looking for? Tomohiro: Famous one is something like fitness or like, personality, or sometimes like some intelligence type traits. We are simply enabling users to connect their own DNA data - it's the latest science - to know more about their identity. Tim: Okay, before we dive deep into the DNA and the genetic science, I want to back up a bit and talk a bit about you. So before you founded Awakens, you used to run G-TAC which was M3's division for healthcare and genetic testing, right? Tomohiro: Yeah. First of all, I really love M3 and then actually, M3 is an investor of Awakens too. Tim: Oh, excellent. Tomohiro: So we have a really strong relationship with M3 too. So Awakens initially started asked like a weekend project. We, I don't know, kind of wanted to do something we really cannot do in previous company, but we see this is going to be the future of genomics. So we wanted to do three things, so one is the - we wanted to do something with whole genome. Existing genetic testing products need only small portion of DNA data which is like, 0.03% DNA data, and then over 300% of DNA data gives more information, a higher accuracy. Tim: My understanding is that a lot of our genome, we don't really know what it does. So I mean, being able to read 100% of the genome doesn't mean you can understand it, right? Tomohiro: Yeah, so maybe 100% DNA data doesn't necessarily to have, doesn't seem to be known for the future but what's really happening right now is that people started targeting small portion of this DNA data called snips. We started products like 23AndMe, AncestryDNA. Right now, in the research for the last three or five years is our research is not for  like a whole genome or whole exnome which is like a 3% to 5% of the DNA data, or even like snips, they see the different location, right? At the end, research kind of revealing that we have more information than what we are using to take the same products. Tim: So right now, like what percent of our genome do we have a good understanding of what it does? Tomohiro: It's really small I would say. Tim: Is it like, 1% or 5%, or? Tomohiro: we have like a 3% of DNA data has functional meaning, then people say that 97% or 98% is like junk DNA or something, right? It's got an ocean with DNA, right? Tim: Sure. We can't really say it's junk DNA. It's just, we don't know what it does yet. Tomohiro: Exactly, so we having new research showing that this data could be related to this kind of phenomenon which we call like a phenotype, so there are so many research I'm going and there is so many progress and how we strategically analyze this DNA data by using AI in the new method, right? We have like an inner universe in DNA, right? DNA is kind of galaxy and people try to understand what we can know from those bunch of letters, and there is history ongoing. Tim: So basically, what Awakens is doing is you are providing a very user-friendly program or friendly API and on the back end, you are correcting all the latest research from around the world of people looking into different parts of the genome and what they might be doing, and then presenting that to the users? Tomohiro: One of the key value our API is the annotation database. Annotation means how we interface each DNA data. So for users, people upload their own existing 23AndMe, AncestryDNA data. The original data is only 0.03%, right? But based on annotation database or the research actually found that there are some letters that could be related to somebody traits which is not covered by data that 23AndMe, AncestryDNA are looking up, right? But at the same time, we provided this data base as an API solution to the company so the company can develop their own products. Tim: That makes sense. Getting back to when you were leaving M3, so you mentioned that they are one of the investors in your company, so obviously, you left on very good terms. That's hard to do in Japan. How did you leave one such good terms and get them excited enough to not only continue speaking to you but to put money in your company? Tomohiro: No, it's more like just personal relationship. It's really doesn't have any competition on what they are doing, right? Tim: Yeah, but wasn't there some pressure, didn't people come to "Hey, that's a great idea, why don't you do that inside the company and will give you support and staffing?" Tomohiro: I think Awakens was a real exceptional case for the company to put the money in that stage. They are more likely trust me and then supporting me, right? Tim: So sort of the personal relationship you've built. Tomohiro: Yeah, yeah. Tim: That makes sense. Well, and it's important for your next phase. You've put out an API but it's much, much easier to make an API than to get other programmers programming against that API. So what kind of development partners do you have? What kind of companies want to make software based on Genome Link?