Genetics and Health

Knowing Your Genomic Sequence

by Hsien Hsien Lei, PhD on May 8th, 2005

In 2003, The Human Genome Project completed sequencing the entire human genome. Biotech companies are now vying to be the first to make the technology available to you.

Helicos Biosciences aims to produce the first commercially available DNA sequencing machines by 2007. They estimate that a person’s complete genomic sequence can be decoded in three days for $5000 USD.

What’s the value of knowing our genomic sequence? Will knowing every little base pair in the double-stranded helix make us any healthier?

At the present time, we know very little about the capabilites of the 3 billion chemical base pairs making up the estimated 20,000 to 25,000 genes in human DNA. Of the genes we have discovered so far (a very small fraction of the estimated number), we have no clue what 50% of them are up to.

Sequencing the genome has thus far proven to be useful only for scientists who are still chipping away at the tip of the iceberg.

They can study all the genes in a genome, for example, or all the transcripts in a particular tissue or organ or tumor, or how tens of thousands of genes and proteins work together in interconnected networks to orchestrate the chemistry of life.

~Insights Learned from the Sequence , The Human Genome Project Website

Here are just a few things which are left to be done now that we know the sequence.

• Exact gene number, exact locations, and functions
• Gene regulation
• DNA sequence organization
• Coordination of gene expression, protein synthesis, and post-translational events
• Interaction of proteins in complex molecular machines
• Disease-susceptibility prediction based on gene sequence variation
• Genes involved in complex traits and multigene diseases

I couldn’t care less if someone handed me a file with my genetic sequence in it. It would raise more questions than answers.

Pointer from FuturePundit.

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POSTED IN: General Genetics and Health