Low-cost personal DNA readings are on the way
NEW SCIENTIST
September 6, 2007
Low-cost personal DNA readings are on the way Peter Aldhous
"GENETICS is about to get personal." So proclaims the website of 23andMe, a Californian company that
is gearing up to offer people a guided tour of their own DNA. For the superstars of genetics, it has
already got personal. Earlier this week, genomics pioneer Craig Venter revealed an almost complete
sequence of his genome, while that of James Watson, co-discoverer of DNA's double-helix structure,
has been available on the web since late June.
Given that Watson's genome took almost $1 million to read, most of us won't immediately be following in
his and Venter's footsteps. It isn't necessary to read your entire genome, however, to browse many of
the genetic variations that may influence your health.
According to George Church, a geneticist at Harvard Medical School in Boston, the most pertinent
information could be gleaned by sequencing the 1 per cent of the genome that codes for proteins.
Thanks to the advances in sequencing technology, that might be done for as little as $1000 per person.
"DNA chips", meanwhile, can scan your genome for common "spelling mistakes" for just a few hundred
dollars. At that price, the era of personalised genomics is already dawning. "This is the year," claims
Church.
To push the field forward, Church has launched the Personal Genome Project (PGP), in which he and
nine other volunteers have signed up to have the protein-coding regions of their genome made
available on the web, along with their medical records, photographs of facial features and the results of
a questionnaire about their health and personal habits. Within a few months, he aims to start scaling up
to 100,000 volunteers.
Church is also an adviser to both 23andMe - named for the number of chromosome pairs in the human
genome - and Cambridge Genomics, two of the firms hoping to turn personalised genomics into big
business. But is the world ready for their services? As well as raising questions about the protection of
personal genetic data, there are concerns about how people will use information that, at this stage, even
trained medical geneticists find extremely difficult to interpret.
Next
NEW SCIENTIST
September 6, 2007
Low-cost personal DNA readings are on the way Peter Aldhous
"GENETICS is about to get personal." So proclaims the website of 23andMe, a Californian company that
is gearing up to offer people a guided tour of their own DNA. For the superstars of genetics, it has
already got personal. Earlier this week, genomics pioneer Craig Venter revealed an almost complete
sequence of his genome, while that of James Watson, co-discoverer of DNA's double-helix structure,
has been available on the web since late June.
Given that Watson's genome took almost $1 million to read, most of us won't immediately be following in
his and Venter's footsteps. It isn't necessary to read your entire genome, however, to browse many of
the genetic variations that may influence your health.
According to George Church, a geneticist at Harvard Medical School in Boston, the most pertinent
information could be gleaned by sequencing the 1 per cent of the genome that codes for proteins.
Thanks to the advances in sequencing technology, that might be done for as little as $1000 per person.
"DNA chips", meanwhile, can scan your genome for common "spelling mistakes" for just a few hundred
dollars. At that price, the era of personalised genomics is already dawning. "This is the year," claims
Church.
To push the field forward, Church has launched the Personal Genome Project (PGP), in which he and
nine other volunteers have signed up to have the protein-coding regions of their genome made
available on the web, along with their medical records, photographs of facial features and the results of
a questionnaire about their health and personal habits. Within a few months, he aims to start scaling up
to 100,000 volunteers.
Church is also an adviser to both 23andMe - named for the number of chromosome pairs in the human
genome - and Cambridge Genomics, two of the firms hoping to turn personalised genomics into big
business. But is the world ready for their services? As well as raising questions about the protection of
personal genetic data, there are concerns about how people will use information that, at this stage, even
trained medical geneticists find extremely difficult to interpret.
Next
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