For a while now, we have been told that soon we will be able to learn a whole lot about our health risks from studying our complete DNA sequence.
A new study out of Stanford University in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) shows just how far we are from that brave new world. For around $15,000 or so per patient, these researchers managed to only get a partial read of key health genes. We are not yet at a point where we can cheaply and easily get and interpret the complete set of instructions for a single person.
Still, it isn’t all doom and gloom. You may not be able to learn everything from your DNA but as one patient in the study found, you can still find things that just might save your life.
Read the full, original story: Testing Complete DNA Sequences Yields Only Partial Info but Could Still Save Your Life
Additional Resources:
- Whole-Genome Sequencing Solving Medical Mysteries, Medscape
- How Well Did You Sequence That Genome?, redOrbit
- If We Can’t Get Genome Accuracy Right, Personalized Medicine Is a Pipe Dream, Motherboard