From 
Del.icio.us
Digg
Reddit
Facebook
StumbleUpon
RD: Help us mere mortals understand this process.
Venter: It's similar to solving a jigsaw puzzle: You pick up one piece and compare it to all the others until you have a match. We shattered the six billion base pairs of DNA in my genome into even smaller pieces. Then a computer assisted in comparing each tiny piece of DNA to the next until there was a match.
RD: But why do it?
Venter: I believe the future of medicine depends on individual genomics. Doing research on single genes isn't enough. We need to look at the whole genome and the whole person in order to prevent and treat disease better.
RD: So just one genome isn't enough?
Venter: That's right. We need a large data set to understand how diseases work. Our website has been inundated with thousands of volunteers already, even though we haven't asked for any yet.
RD: You found you carry genes that predispose you to Alzheimer's, diabetes, blindness and heart disease. Does this worry you?
Venter: Not really. I've tried to change my diet and get more exercise. And I started taking a statin to lower my cholesterol. This is one of the challenges of medicine going forward: learning to prevent diseases versus treating them later.
RD: When do you think an average person could go to her doc and ask for a genome analysis?
Venter: Within a decade, you will be able to have your genome sequenced for a few thousand dollars.
RD: What's next?
Venter: I'd certainly like to see this enable preventive medicine. Another goal is to make sure we have a chance of longer-term survival here by changing what we're doing to the environment before it's too late.
Advertisement 
Your Comments
See all
...
Post your commentCancel