Steve Jobs had his DNA sequenced for $100K to fight cancer
Desperate to win his battle against cancer, Steve Jobs paid $100,000 to have all of the genes of his cancer tumor and his normal DNA sequenced.
The detail comes from Walter Isaacson's forthcoming biography of Jobs, set to hit bookshelves and digital devices next week. According to The New York Times, Isaacson said that Steve Jobs was one of just 20 people in the world to have his DNA sequenced.
The sequencing was done by teams from Stanford, Johns Hopkins, Harvard, and the Broad Institute of MIT. With the extensive details gained through the expensive process, doctors could tailor drugs to "target them to the defective molecular pathways."
One doctor reportedly told Jobs that the treatments he underwent could help to make some types of cancer "a manageable chronic disease."
Jobs himself, as well as his friends, family and physicians, are said to have spoken candidly about the Apple co-founder's battle with pancreatic cancer for the book. Jobs admitted to Isaacson that he initially decided not to have surgery when he found out he had cancer, a move he later regretted.
Jobs's cancer was discovered by a CT scan in October of 2003. Upon hearing the news, one of his first calls was to Larry Brilliant, a physician and epidemiologist and now director of Google.org, the search giant's philanthropic arm.
Jobs and Brilliant reportedly had a lengthy conversation about religion and their respective thoughts on God before Jobs revealed to Brilliant that he had been diagnosed with cancer.
Friends, family and colleagues attempted to convince Jobs to have surgery for his cancer immediately, but to no avail. Among those who urged him was Art Levinson, chairman of Genentech and a member of the Apple Board of Directors.
Jobs eventually lost his battle with cancer earlier this month, on Oct. 5. He was 56.
The story of Jobs's life is told in great detail in Isaacson's biography, entitled "Steve Jobs." It arrives next Monday in a hardcover edition, as well as digitally through Amazon Kindle and Apple's iBooks, both of which can be read on the iPhone and iPad.
The detail comes from Walter Isaacson's forthcoming biography of Jobs, set to hit bookshelves and digital devices next week. According to The New York Times, Isaacson said that Steve Jobs was one of just 20 people in the world to have his DNA sequenced.
The sequencing was done by teams from Stanford, Johns Hopkins, Harvard, and the Broad Institute of MIT. With the extensive details gained through the expensive process, doctors could tailor drugs to "target them to the defective molecular pathways."
One doctor reportedly told Jobs that the treatments he underwent could help to make some types of cancer "a manageable chronic disease."
Jobs himself, as well as his friends, family and physicians, are said to have spoken candidly about the Apple co-founder's battle with pancreatic cancer for the book. Jobs admitted to Isaacson that he initially decided not to have surgery when he found out he had cancer, a move he later regretted.
Jobs's cancer was discovered by a CT scan in October of 2003. Upon hearing the news, one of his first calls was to Larry Brilliant, a physician and epidemiologist and now director of Google.org, the search giant's philanthropic arm.
Jobs and Brilliant reportedly had a lengthy conversation about religion and their respective thoughts on God before Jobs revealed to Brilliant that he had been diagnosed with cancer.
Friends, family and colleagues attempted to convince Jobs to have surgery for his cancer immediately, but to no avail. Among those who urged him was Art Levinson, chairman of Genentech and a member of the Apple Board of Directors.
Jobs eventually lost his battle with cancer earlier this month, on Oct. 5. He was 56.
The story of Jobs's life is told in great detail in Isaacson's biography, entitled "Steve Jobs." It arrives next Monday in a hardcover edition, as well as digitally through Amazon Kindle and Apple's iBooks, both of which can be read on the iPhone and iPad.
Comments
Man, I don't think I'll have to read the book. What is this, CliffsnotesInsider?
Well, I don't think you should assume you're getting the whole story. I would read the book, and in the interest of all points of view, other biographies as well. In words, read more not less.
It sounds like some people in the media have read advanced copies of Issacson's book, because there's a lot of snippets and sound bites like these appearing all over the web lately.
It's noble in a way, kind of like donating an organ. A lot of people might benefit from that. I have a feeling there's going to be a lot of cloning jokes, though.
You mean like "Samsung is rumored to be growing their next CEO in a test tube from Steve's cloned DNA?" or something like that?
You mean like "Samsung is rumored to be growing their next CEO in a test tube from Steve's cloned DNA?" or something like that?
lol...hilarious.
It's noble in a way, kind of like donating an organ. A lot of people might benefit from that. I have a feeling there's going to be a lot of cloning jokes, though.
in mass effect 2 they still had a body that they rescued to bring shepard back to life
Well, I don't think you should assume you're getting the whole story. I would read the book, and in the interest of all points of view, other biographies as well. In words, read more not less.
It sounds like some people in the media have read advanced copies of Issacson's book, because there's a lot of snippets and sound bites like these appearing all over the web lately.
That was the precise reason for my post. I will be reading the book intently.
Elvis is alive somewhere,
Disney body still in a freezer somewhere.
and now Jobs DNA is somewhere.
Every influent personality got some myth around them about beating death...
The difference here is that this one is true.
Keep it a secret.
You guys are failing the fundamentals here.
Yet, you call yourselves Apple fans?
Hey AI, if you really want to help promote this book, stop taking excerpts out of it.
Keep it a secret.
You guys are failing the fundamentals here.
Yet, you call yourselves Apple fans?
Hey AI, if you really want to promote the book, keep taking small excerpts out of it.
Don't keep it a secret.
You guys are helping me create interest in a branch of literature I typically don't read.
You guys are true Apple fans.
I wonder if Jobs had influential alternative medicine advocates he was consulting at the time.
Hey AI, if you really want to help promote this book, stop taking excerpts out of it.
Keep it a secret.
You guys are failing the fundamentals here.
Yet, you call yourselves Apple fans?
hey AI, if you really want to promote the book, keep taking small excerpts out of it.
Don't keep it a secret.
You guys are helping me create interest in a branch of literature I typically read.
You guys are true Apple fans.
So you disagree with Galbi, then, do you?
We have names for this - words like "integrity" and "taste" - but they're seldom used in our culture because what they represent doesn't make for a profitable exhibit in our media zoo. Nonetheless, some people are still more concerned with what they can do than who they are, even if we've lost the ability to recognize them.
Unlike the vast majority of strangers whose names and faces are as ubiquitous as flatulence, Mr. Jobs was more concerned with his ideas than himself. I greatly respect and admire that and don't want to know how he lived or died, not least of all because the personal lives of human beings are so uniform that they can never be anything but cliché.
"Tell-all" journalism is in bad taste and consuming it merely encourages more of the same, but the real reason to ignore it is that it never has anything at all to tell. Our births, our deaths, and much of the struggle that goes on in between are all the same.
Anyway, you're an idiot if you wouldn't use your wealth to save your own life. And at $100k, that's incredibly little money, given his overall wealth. Get some perspective, people.
It sounds like some people in the media have read advanced copies of Issacson's book, because there's a lot of snippets and sound bites like these appearing all over the web lately.
I've read a bunch of them. It seems to me that the book is VERY well written. I'd like to check out his bio of Einstein.