|
According to The New York Times, the first person in the world to have his full DNA profiled in text inside a small disk is none other that James D. Watson. Watson aided researchers in the cracking of DNA code five years ago, and scientists believe that this signals a start of a new trend for advancing health care.
In fact, scientists claim that once genomes are made public and more is known about them, they can establish links between other genomes and determine the best course of action to take. A person's genes define what diseases he may be prone to, or how long of a life he can expect.
"Nobody quite knows how to manage expectations in such a rapidly changing and deeply personal field," said George M. Church, director of the Personal Genome Project. Data reflected in your own genetic profile isn't always a fixed constant; it changes everyday.
Church explains, "The picture is getting more and more complete, but along the way there’s going to be a lot of, ‘You told us this last week and now you’re telling us this!’"
But at a steep price of US$ 1 million per sequence, mapping out six billion letters of genetic code isn't as attractive as it sounds. There are people who also would rather keep deeply-rooted personal information to themselves than to freely make them known. Scientists believe that the idea would have to overcome the social hurdles first, before becoming a scientific effort.
Dr. Church's own research project has vowed to allow 10 volunteers to have 1% of their DNA profiled, at a much more affordable US$ 1,000. Other companies, such as 23andme, have also begun to offer DNA mapping and readouts. They also make use of tools to keep track of genetic information.
Meanwhile, companies such as Illumina, Applied Biosystems and 454 Life Sciences have claimed that the average price point for the complete human genome has already dropped to US$ 100,000. The same companies are currently participating in a contest to sequence 100 human genomes within 10 days for a US$ 10 million grand prize.
Volunteers for the contest include Microsoft's co-founder Paul Allen, astrophysicist Stephen Hawking, television interviewer Larry King and financier Michael Milken.
|
|
