Genes that cause many common illnesses found. There goes your insurance.

Saw the news on Beebs and read this article at Technology Review.

Scientists analyzed 500,000 genetic markers in each of 1,700 people, making it the largest such study to date. By comparing the DNA of 2,000 patients with one of seven different diseases--Crohn's disease, type 1 and 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, rheumatoid arthritis, and bipolar disorder--with 3,000 healthy controls, researchers identified 24 genetic regions strongly linked to specific diseases: one in bipolar disorder, one in coronary-artery disease, nine in Crohn's disease, three in rheumatoid arthritis, seven in type 1 diabetes, and three in type 2 diabetes.

I was only partly kidding about medical insurance. At the moment - atleast here in the UK - there's stringent control on access to client medical records by insurance companies. But for how long? In the long run the genetically lucky will raise awkward questions: Why should they subsidize genetic losers? That's just the way humans are. (Just look around if you have any doubts. The bird flu virus sharing issue, for instance. I am on the Indonesian side on this if you want to know.)

That said, we can take heart in the fact that this would give hope to a lot of people who could act early and minimize their suffering due to genetic disorders. It may be someone you know, someone near and dear to you, or perhaps it might be you.