Some worthwhile recent links from the world of personal genomics:
- A great piece in Newsweek by Mary Carmichael summarising the recent regulatory furore over direct-to-consumer genetic testing, and the potential implications for the industry.
- Emily Singer has two articles at MIT Technology Review summarising important messages from the Consumer Genetics Conference last week. Firstly, early results from the Coriell Personalized Medicine Collaborative suggest that risk information from individual genetic test results is a stronger motivator for healthy behaviour than risk prediction from family history; and secondly, several early attempts to begin integrating genomics into medical practice.
- I've been remiss in not linking more often to Dan Koboldt's blog MassGenomics. Dan has recently produced some of the most clear, thorough genomics science-focused posts I've seen in the blogosphere; here are two examples.
- Keith Robison reviews a new potential player making big claims in the DNA sequencing arena, GnuBio. The company is advertising its technology's potential to produce a complete genome sequence for $30; Keith injects some much-needed realism into the discussion.
- In the New York Times, David Ewing Duncan profiles the remarkable George Church - it's always astonishing to see just how many plates Church has spinning in the air at one time, from synthetic biology (engineering a cell with molecules of the opposite chirality to standard biology) to the ambitious Personal Genome Project.
Also, a reminder that I share many links related to direct-to-consumer genetic testing and personal genomics via Twitter; I'll be trying to be more diligent in posting summaries here as well, but Twitter offers a far more straightforward and timely venue for link-sharing - so if you haven't already signed up, consider it.
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Going off on a tangent, this just came in at Physorg.com: Scientists uncover the genetic secrets that allow Tibetans to thrive in thin air http://www.physorg.com/news195133560.html
-This is just one example of the treasures hiding in the diversity of the human genome, it will be interesting to see what they find in the genomes of the (genetically very diverse) Kung! people in South Africa.
And some Sardinian families produce centenarians despite a diet of steaks and other fatty items...
The aforementioned risk information from individual genetic test results will one day (I hope) be combined with medicines that mimic the effects of the *beneficial* genes, as well as medicines that block the effects of the *adverse* genes.