Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2009, 6 504 Personalized genomics is the first and most important area to consider as a key input to consumer personalized medicine. Genomic sequencing came to prominence with the Human Genome Project (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Genome_Project) which ran for thirteen years (1990-2003) and spent $3 billion to sequence the human genome. The human genome has three billion nucleotide base pairs organized into 20,000-25,000 genes. Presently, the two key applications for DNA are sequencing (reading) and synthesizing (writing). Figure 8 shows Carlson curves, the cost per base pair to sequence and synthesize DNA, an analog to Moore’s Law but with faster progress. Advancement could further accelerate as companies like Pacific Biosciences who specialize in next-generation high throughput genomic sequencing technology are estimating that they will have a $100 one-hour whole human genome scan available in 2010 (http://www.pacificbiosciences.com/video_lg.html). Figure 8. Carlson curves [15]. Genomic testing has been available for some time, but was generally ordered by a physician as a one-off test for a particular condition. The shift is in the launch of companies focused on direct-to- consumer genetic testing, offering one-off and multi-SNP array testing of up to one million SNPs, and whole-genome sequencing. A SNP is a single nucleotide polymorphism, an area of known human genetic variation which may be tied to a disease condition. Personalized genomics services are provided by several companies for SNP sequencing including 23andMe (http://www.23andme.com), Navigenics (http://www.navigenics.com), DNA Direct (http://www.dnadirect.com) and deCODEme (http://www.decodeme.com) for prices ranging from $100 to $2,500. At least one company, Knome (http://www.knome.com), affiliated with Dr. George Church’s Personal Genome Project at Harvard University (http://www.personalgenomes.org), provides whole genome testing for approximately $350,000 [16].