That’s a Bad Cough, Let’s Examine Your Genome
That’s a Bad Cough, Let’s Examine Your Genome – Knome – Gizmodo.
Seriously, genomics is about to invade your life 
. I’ve been warning you. 23andMe, Navigenics, Knome (cute name, I’d bet on them on the name alone 
).. they are the beginnings.
I clearly remember the arguments for and against the Human Genome Project 20+ years ago, I was finishing up my undergraduate degree: too expensive, would never be done in 15 years (projected completion), would crowd out basic science. Well, it came in under projected budget, 2 years early. The technological advances have been amazing (cost and speed of sequencing, etc), a few dozen other genomes have been completed, basic understanding of biology is jumping leaps and bounds, and now the medical and personal effects are about to be experienced (including, as I’ve argued, a huge breaking strain on our current health insurance system).
Currently there are over Eurkaryote (non-bacteria, which means everything from plants to humans) genomes completed and over a 1,000 ongoing sequencing projects.
But that’s even minor. Companies like those above are poised to start sequencing thousands, perhaps soon millions, of personal human genomes. There is the 1,000 genomes project to deeply research the genetic variation in 1,000 human genomes with an eye to disease characterization, and now the 10,000 genome project to sequence 10,000 vertebrate species genomes to increase our understanding of basic genetic, evolutionary and medical biology.
It still boggles my mind that 20 years ago we were debating the feasibility of sequence 1 genome. Now we are blithely going about sequencing tens of thousands.
If you thought the internet changed your life, you have something new coming. I think Emma is going to enter her adulthood with a whole new world.
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