E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSSThe claim by Ion Torrent on Tuesday that a reasonably affordable machine capable of mapping an individual’s complete genetic makeup for $1,000 will be ready by the end of the year has technology geeks in a tizzy.
The $1,000 genome has been hotly sought ever since a crude map of the human genome was first published in 2001. The Carlsbad, Calif. biotech company, part of Life Technologies, will sell its device to research labs and medical clinics for $99,000 to $149,000, compared to the current price of about $750,000 for existing sequencers, Reuters reported on its website Tuesday. According to Reuters, a doctor will be able to sequence a patient’s entire genome for $1,000, compared to the current rate of $3,000 just to test for breast cancer gene mutations, for example. And the company says its new machine can complete the genome analysis within a day, rather than the two months previously needed.
It's widely believed this type of genetic analysis will revolutionize medicine, that patients will learn their risk profile for potential diseases by having their DNA read right in the doctor's office. Drugs and vaccines will be designed to fit our genes, in order to maximize efficacy and minimize any side-effects. Newborn babies would have someone peek at their genes so parents could take steps to prevent genetic risks from becoming realities.
Sounds good. The company sure hopes Wall Street buys it. And so do a lot of people hoping to sell you genetic tests. But I am not convinced.
We still don’t know all the significance of small variations in genes for health. Nor do we have studies of genetic risk factors involving large numbers of people or across a broad spectrum of racial and ethnic groups. Without that information, personalizing treatment to fit your genome is more a marketing slogan than meaningful medicine.
Besides, who is going to explain your test results? Your doctor may have had only a couple of classes on genetics in medical school. There aren’t enough genetic counselors to meet even current demand. And pharmacists are only now starting to be educated about the relationship between genes and drugs.
The biggest downer for those dreaming of all the good to come from cheap genetic testing may be simple human nature. It’s not clear that the average person will do anything about a known risk. As it is, about one-third of Americans are so obese they face high risks of chronic health problems such as diabetes and heart disease.
Will genetic information be any more motivating to get people to lose weight, stop smoking, reduce their stress, stay active, wear a seatbelt or a condom, than stepping on a scale or coping with a smokers’ hack?
Two cheers to scientists and businessmen for reaching the $1,000 genome. But, only two cheers. There is a long way to go before the achievement gets translated into bottom line health results that we can put to practical use.
Art Caplan, Ph.D., is the director for the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania. Follow him on Twitter @ArthurCaplan.
More from Art Caplan:
Leave a Comment:
Doubtful.
Put it in a kiosk at the mall..... it'll make a mint!
sure, and then it wont be long before insurance companies end up with access to your information (DNA) to then customize your payments or denial of a fair health insurance plan.. DON'T BUY it..
Not sure what the point of the author's pessimism is in this article. Nobody that's well informed on the subject is arguing that scientists are anywhere close making use of an individual's genome for "personalized medicine", or being able to make any kind of detailed evaluation/predictions based on it.
There isn't even a quote from any Ion Torrent scientist making false claims about the technological possibilities of their nascent sequencer to back up the author's rant. In fact, if you go to the Reuters article that the author mentions you'll find the following paraphrased quote from Jonathan Rothberg, CEO of Ion Torrent:
("Proton" comes from "Ion Proton Sequencer", which is the full name of the sequencing device)
In other words, Rothberg expects the main use for his sequencing machine to be for research purposes so that scientists can gain a better understanding of the genetic factors which underlie cancer and other diseases. Sounds like a pretty level-headed outlook to me. I'd bet Dr. Rothberg agrees with the sentiment that we have "a long way to go before the achievement gets translated into bottom line health results that we can put to practical use."
I don't usually care when people miss the mark like this, but the guy who wrote this article is (apparently) the director of an academic bioethics center at an Ivy League school that's well respected for it's biomedical research. I don't get it, who is he blasting here? Why?
No one is going to analyze my DNA. Forget it. This stuff starts out as "research" and ends up as eugenics...
Will it ever come to the day when they will be just able to scan us like a bar code and know immediately who we are by checking some data base?
I agree with Maxwell SD. This machine has all kinds of research possibilities. I assume it could be used to sequence animal DNA also. It would be a great benefit to biologists trying to work out the evolutionary relationships of different species.
I think it would be interesting to know regardless of how much use you can put the information to. Of course it could be sort of scary too. People might not want to know when they think about it.
And I have relatives who smoked most of their lives and they never got lung cancer or COPD. Maybe we are resistant. Maybe I can start smoking again. Or maybe I'm going to die of something else so I might as as smoke :) Just joking.....sort of.
Such a machine will be used for discriminatory purposes. Companies will seek to have new hires tested, and deny people jobs on the basis of their DNA. Health insurance companies will use it to deny people coverage. The haves and have-nots will be separated by more than money. They will be separated by DNA also. If we aren't careful, we will become such a world.
This is a newly opened door to an unlit room -- we have no idea yet how it will be used, for good or bad. Our assumptions now will appear extremely naive in just a few years.
LOL re: conspiracy theories here! Live in fear?
Knowledge is power, and this will be a great tool.
How does genetic risk correlate with wearing a seat belt? What we have to realize, and stop writing inflammatory articles about [nice choice of weight loss in the title, use hot button words to attract readers!], is that EVERYONE has a genetic risk for something and knowing you have a risk factor doesn't always mean you can do anything about it. The media, the government, and the health care industry needs to step back and let people live their lives. How many great accomplishments in this world were achieved by people who didn't know the risks involved? If they had, would they have ever stepped out of their homes?
First off, scientists don't even know what half of our genes mapped actually do. And secondly, you can get it done at 23andme.com for a couple of hundred dollars.