Dr. Dan Stoicescu
The New York Times article Gene Map Becomes a Luxury Item said
On a cold day in January, Dan Stoicescu, a millionaire living in Switzerland, became the second person in the world to buy the full sequence of his own genetic code.
He is also among a relatively small group of individuals who could afford the $350,000 price tag.
Mr. Stoicescu is the first customer of Knome, a Cambridge-based company that has promised to parse his genetic blueprint by spring.
Scientists have so far unraveled only a handful of complete human genomes, all financed by governments, foundations, and corporations in the name of medical research. But as the cost of genome sequencing goes from stratospheric to merely very expensive, it is piquing the interest of a new clientele.
“I’d rather spend my money on my genome than a Bentley or an airplane,” said Mr. Stoicescu, 56, a biotechnology entrepreneur who retired two years ago after selling his company. He says he will check discoveries about genetic disease risk against his genome sequence daily, “like a stock portfolio.”
Dan Stoicescu, Ph.D. earned his Ph.D. in medicinal chemistry. He
was
born in
Romania and lived in the United States in the early 1990s before
founding
Sindan, an oncology products company based in Romania that he ran
for 15 years.
He is Honorary Consul of Finland which
involves him in several philanthropic and charitable activities, and is
also trustee at the
Innerspace Foundation.
Dan has published more than 50 research papers focusing mainly on
oncology. They include
Synthesis of 4-aryloxy-7-nitrobenzofurazan derivatives from
4-chloro-7-nitrobenzofurazan and various phenoxide anions (including
pharmaceuticals) in the presence of crown ethers and
Determination of the 5-fluorouracil and N1(2’-furanidyl)uracil in the
presence of tegafur by zero-crossing first derivative
spectrometry.
He holds patents
Novel inhibitors of folic acid-dependent enzymes,
Use of condensed pyrimidine derivatives for the treatment of autoimmune
and inflammatory diseases, and
Condensed pyrimidine derivatives as inhibitors of folic acid-dependent
enzymes.
Now living with his wife and 12-year-old son in a village outside
Geneva, Dan describes himself as a transhumanist who believes that life
can be extended through nanotechnology and artificial intelligence, as
well as diet and lifestyle adaptations.