Apple continues to have ambitious plans, and this time its goal is to provide iPhone owners with the ability to perform DNA tests through applications that it is preparing to launch, as reported in a report by MIT Technology Review, which cites sources with knowledge of the matter.
Its goal is to allow the user to display and share DNA information with different recipients, including scientists.
The apps are based on ResearchKit, a software platform the company unveiled in March that helps hospitals or scientists conduct medical studies on iPhones by collecting data from the devices' sensors or through surveys.
Already the first five applications - one of which is m Power, which monitors Parkinson's symptoms - "won" thousands of participants within a very few days.
"Apple launched the Research Kit and saw a fantastic response. The obvious next step is to collect DNA," says Gholson Lyon, a geneticist at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, who was not involved in the studies.
In two studies the company has planned, it will not collect or test DNA samples directly, as this will be done by university partners. The resulting data will be stored in the cloud, but some of the findings could appear directly on iPhones.
For now, however, Apple is keeping its plans extremely secret, and a company spokesperson declined to comment on the matter.
Source : defencenet.gr
