Watson vs Venter: the loser is race-based medicine

August 21, 2008 | Source: New Scientist news service

A new comparison of the publicly available genome sequences of James Watson and Craig Venter indicates that skin color doesn’t necessarily tell you much about the rest of their genome or how they’ll respond to drugs or which drugs they’ll respond to, says Venter.

But the availability of cheap genetic testing — and soon complete individual genome sequencing — means that such personalized information will become increasingly important in developing, testing and prescribing medicines.