Scanning The Human Genome Provide Insights Into The Likelihood Of Future Disease. Part 1 of 3

Scanning The Human Genome Provide Insights Into The Likelihood Of Future Disease. Stephen Quake, a Stanford University professor of bioengineering, now has a very fine sagacity of his own genetic destiny. Quake’s DNA was the focus of the first completely mapped genome of a healthy person aimed at predicting future health risks. The study was conducted by a team of Stanford researchers and cost about $50,000. The researchers say they can now predict Quake’s risk for dozens of diseases and how he might respond to a number of widely used medicines.

This quintessence of individualized risk report could become common within the next decade and may become much cheaper, according to the Stanford team. “The $1000 genome test is coming fast. The challenge lies in knowing what to do with all that information. We’ve focused on establishing priorities that will be most caring when a patient and a physician are sitting together looking at the computer screen,” Euan Ashley, an assistant professor of medicine, said in a university news release.

Those priorities number assessing how a person’s activity levels, weight, diet and other lifestyle habits combine with his or her genetic risk for, or protection against, health problems such as diabetes or pith attack. It’s also important to determine if a certain medication is likely to benefit the patient or cause harmful side effects.

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