Next, it will use a database of genes maintained by Incyte Pharmaceuticals, in Palo Alto, Calif.

FORBES: A hail of silver bullets

Diadexus scans the database for those few genes specific to one type of cancer, but not found in healthy tissue or other diseases.

FORBES: Divining Disease

Incyte's database contains thousands of genes found in different tumors.

FORBES: Divining Disease

SmithKline has a database of some 100, 000 genes.

FORBES: A hail of silver bullets

Love insists that Hyseq has a unique gene-finding technology that will help it discover genes that have been missed both by other gene database companies and by the U.S. government-funded Human Genome Project.

FORBES: Biotech Royalty's Tarnished Crown

David Cesarini, an economist at the Center for Experimental Social Science at New York University, Magnus Johannesson of the Stockholm School of Economics and others have used the database to investigate whether people's genes play a role in determining fairness and financial risk-taking.

WSJ: Twins Health Registry Is Treasure Trove for Medical Research

They used information from a vast database at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore that pulled together research from around the world on diseases and genes they were linked to.

WSJ: Genes May Link Disparate Diseases