If you needed to create a large database of diverse human DNA, how would you do it?

In my near future sci-fi novel set in the 2040s, a corporation needs to find a man and a woman with a very specific set of genetic markers so they could have a child, and then said child would be a subject in an advanced gene therapy/biological augmentation project.

What exactly would be the most efficient method of gathering and creating a huge database of diverse human DNA in order to screen and find the people necessary for the project? A worldwide fake blood donation campaign?

 

I'd go with an ancestry tracking site, with a little clause hidden somewhere in the terms that they can use your DNA for other purposes. We've already seen law enforcement catch killers using the DNA of relatives who participated in programs like Ancestry or 23 and Me.

 

It's sci-fi fiction so expand on this: Human Genome Project. The Ancestry and 24 and Me data bases are based on fairly thin genome data about people. Of course you could do the same with them, add fiction to suit your story.

 

Start gathering samples from people through their HMO. If it's something sanctioned by some government organization, they could send a memo to doctors saying there's testing for some low level infectious disease and in order to prevent a possible breakout, it's important to take a sample and send it for testing.

 

Engineered mosquitoes.

 

@Fallow What? I didn't get it. Please elaborate.

@The Dapper Hooligan and @X Equestris It's not government sanctioned bur private. How would you go about gathering it in foreign countries and bring it all back stateside without raising any alarms?

 

I did 23 and me in the states.

Private testing companies are really popular all over the world.

https://thednageek.com/genealogical-dna-testing-around-the-globe/

So basically, the private company gives something in exchange for you spitting into a tube and sending them a hundred bucks or whatever.

 

You didn't ask this question, so my comment is admittedly completely unsolicited, but if this is the same story as your Mars colony story - push your timeline out 100 years. The 2040's are right around the corner, and this is one if my biggest eye-crossers in Science Fiction, the idea that the totally fantastic, ultra-different, super-slick Science Fiction Future™ is just 10 or 20 years away.

With the exception of internet and cell phones, I'm living a life that's not technologically any different from the one I lived in the 1980's, which was 30-ish years ago.

 

But internet and cell phones are a very big deal that does make life very technologically different than the 1980's. It's hard to believe the Smartphone only came out in 2007 and life is very different now from then.

 

Everything so far has been passive collection techniques - like 23 and me. I was pointing out that targeted techniques that imitate natural mosquito bites would be an active way of getting samples. You could use regular mosquitos with cameras, GMO mosquitos that will seek out the person they bit before if you get the match you want or robot mosquitos that may not even look like insects but leave behind a mark that convinces victims that is what bit them.

This is an SF story, right?

 

Pretty much my thoughts.

 

Feel free to ask and say anything here. You're welcome! It is the same story, I'm only playing around with a few options to set it in the 2040's USA with some changes if the more futuristic setting doesn't work out. If it does however, it will take place in the 2130s or 2140s instead.

 

Not sure about collecting, but bringing it back shouldn't be a problem if they're listed as a medical research corporation, or university or something. As long as they've got the proper paperwork filled out, I doubt any border agents would even bother looking through any packages marked "FRAGILE MEDICAL SAMPLES KEEP REFRIGERATED."

 

Actually, I believe that stored DNA would be obsolete in 50 years. We already know the chemical makeup and are closing in fast to the structure that would produce a desired result. From that we could create an algorithm that would reproduce or resurrect any living thing.

DNA is made up of molecules called nucleotides. Each nucleotide contains a phosphate group, a sugar group and a nitrogen base. The four types of nitrogen bases are adenine (A), thymine (T), guanine (G) and cytosine (C). The order of these bases is what determines DNA's instructions, or genetic code.

 

I don't understand the distinction you're making. "Sequenced" DNA is stored as information, not as a chemical strand already. That's how 23 and Me does the matching - by comparing data files.

Are you talking about using digital information to do something like cloning and being able to do it without genetic material?

 

In The Simpsons it's mentioned once that the US government only keeps pennies around to collect DNA samples from.

Wait, I'm not being snarky here. What if Visa/Mastercard came up with SecureGene™ technology that prevented identity theft by letting you register your DNA sample with the company. Every time you used your credit card, you'd press your thumb to the USB SecureGene™ scanner (FREE with new member registration!) or use the equivalent on your phone or mobile device.

It's for your protection...

Spoiler

When the Social Security Act was first passed, critics warned that the government would be creating a National ID Number in the form of the SSN, and Social Security cards printed before 1972 had warnings that the numbers were not to be used for identification purposes.

 

I was thinking more along the lines of using a form of life and modifying it to reproduce a desired product similar to CRISPR DNA splicing. And who knows how advanced the process would be in 50 years.

 

I don't know if I'd agree that making something that phenotypically appears to be a dodo is the same as something that is actually genetically a dodo.

 

Orson Scott Card had a book similar to that, where he used modified viruses to cure genetic illnesses and create ultra human cult followers.