Predictive Human Genomics Is Here

04/29/2007

Thanks to breakthroughs in genomics testing, physicians now have tools for true preventive medicine. Gene chips and genomics test panels can predict one’s predisposition towards many serious -- and often preventable -- genetic diseases and allow doctors to modify gene expression through precise, targeted, individualized interventions.


by Terry Grossman
Published on KurzweilAI.net May 29, 2002


The monumental accomplishment of decoding the human genome is nearly complete. The results of work of the official government-sponsored Human Genome Project together with the efforts of private firms such as Celera and Human Genome Sciences has created a true inflection point in the curve of medical history. The human genome, arguably The Rosetta Stone of the human body, is presently undergoing intense scrutiny by scientists in nearly every country in the world. The potential benefits of these efforts for improving human health and well-being are incalculable.

"The greatest payoff from understanding the human genome is likely to be an illumination of the molecular pathogenesis of disorders that are currently poorly understood and for which treatments are …frequently sub-optimal….Genomics offers … the greatest opportunity for development of targeted therapy since the development of antibiotics,"1 according to Frank S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D. of the National Human Genome Research Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md.

Historically, previous medical disciplines have dealt largely with the after-effects of an individual's genetic inheritance. Genomics and these other new disciplines, on the other hand, look directly at the genes themselves. They look at an individual's genetically programmed biochemical pathways of life under conditions of health and disease. For the first time ever, physicians have the tools to help their patients employ truly preventive medicine. Genomics may help scientists find ways of modifying human biochemistry long before a genetically predisposed disease has a chance to appear.2

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