Genetics: Stephen Fodor | Genetics | DISCOVER Magazine

Genetics: Stephen Fodor | Genetics | DISCOVER Magazine:

November, 2004:

"In the late 1980s, long before the human genome had been sequenced, Stephen Fodor and a few scientist pals in Silicon Valley dreamed of putting the entire human genome on a single glass test chip the size of a thumbnail. Late last year, Affymetrix—the company that Fodor founded and heads as CEO—announced the creation of the whole-genome chip. Researchers and doctors can use it to scan the entire library of human genes and, in a single semiautomated experiment, zoom out and spot the interactive activity of many far-flung bits of DNA in a particular type of cancer, for example, then track the tumor’s response to treatment. Last spring the company created a slightly different tool that promises to be at least as transformative: two tiny glass grids, each containing 50,000 SNPs (pronounced “snips”), or single nucleotide polymorphisms, which can be thought of as all the slightly different spellings of many genetic “words.” Because geneticists use SNPs as markers throughout the genome, this new tool can tease out the link from a particular pattern of widely spaced genes to such complex diseases as autism, diabetes, and cancer. Fodor’s big idea—to wed crisp computer-chip technology to gooey biology—started it all."