Googling the genome

April 16, 2004 | Source: The Guardian

With the rapidly falling cost of sequencing the human genome, consider a not-too-distant future in which personal genomes are readily available, writes Glyn Moody, author of Digital Code of Life.

For those with relations affected by a serious medical condition, this will conveniently provide them with any genetic test they need. But it will also offer the rest of us information about our status for these and other, far less serious disorders that might similarly manifest themselves in children if we married a fellow carrier.

A bioinformatics program running on a PC could easily check our genomes for all genes associated with disorders that had been identified so far. Regular software updates downloaded from the Internet would keep our search software abreast of the latest medical research.

A silicon chip storing your entire genome would add little to the overall cost once sequencing becomes cheap, but would ensure that an identity card would be tamper-proof and impossible to forge, since the genomic sequence would be unique to you (apart from any twin) and always checkable against your DNA.

So, how potentially serious does a variant gene’s effects have to be for us to care about its presence in our DNA? Down to what level should we be morally obliged to tell our prospective partners — or have the right to ask about? Other interested parties would be employers, insurance companies, and law enforcement agencies.