James Watson's Genome Sequenced

HenryTo · Posted: Sat Jun 02, 2007 1:12 am Post subject: James Watson's Genome Sequenced

This was a two-month US$1 million project between 454 Life Sciences Corp and Baylor College of Medicine, compared to the Human Genome Project which took 13 years to complete and at a whopping sum of $3 billion. Give it another ten years and sequencing a genome would ultimately take a day and $1,000 to complete for the average Joe.
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Scientist gets own personal genome map By JUAN A. LOZANO, Associated Press Writer
Fri Jun 1, 5:35 PM ET

HOUSTON - The Nobel Prize-winning scientist who helped discover the molecular structure of DNA has become the first person to receive his own personal genome map.

The map, a breakdown of his DNA that shows illnesses he is predisposed to contracting, is the first step in making the sequencing of individual human genomes quick, affordable and a routine part of medical care, according to researchers.

"I knew I was risking possible anxiety when I saw it," said 79-year-old James Watson, who was presented the map during a ceremony at Baylor College of Medicine. "But it's much more that if I don't sleep at night it's due to thinking about

Iraq rather than about my genome."

Watson was chosen for the project because of his contributions to the field, and the map was completed after he submitted a blood sample.

A review showed he has some variances that could induce cancer — which appeared to mirror his actual health. Watson said that he has had skin cancer and that his sister had breast cancer.

The $1 million, two-month project was a collaboration between 454 Life Sciences Corp., a Connecticut company that specializes in DNA sequencing, and Baylor College of Medicine's Human Genome Sequencing Center. At the moment, there are no plans to complete more maps in the immediate future, though researchers want to eventually map more people.

Jonathan Rothberg, founder and former chairman of 454 Life Sciences, said the price of mapping someone's genome sequence could eventually drop to $1,000, making it easy for people to incorporate it into their medical care.

That potential price tag is in sharp contrast to the cost of the

Human Genome Project, the international, publicly financed effort to first identify all the approximately 20,000-25,000 genes in human DNA. That project, seen as one of history's great scientific milestones, cost $3 billion and was completed in 2003, after 13 years.

Watson, who shared a Nobel Prize for his role in discovering the structure of DNA in 1953 and who launched the Human Genome Project in 1990, said thousands more individual human genomes need to be mapped out before researchers can make better sense of the information they can provide.

Amy McGuire, an assistant professor of medicine with Baylor's Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy, said integrating human genomes into medical diagnoses raises various ethical questions. Those include what to do when they reveal personal information about a patient's relatives and whether someone's genetic code could result in discrimination from insurance companies or employers.

"I think we'll have a healthier and more compassionate world 50 years from now because of the technological advances we are celebrating today," Watson said.

While Watson said that he would review the map further, there was at least one part he would avoid. He planned to skip the section of the map that would tell him if he was at risk for

Alzheimer's disease, which his grandmother died from.

That, he said, he didn't want to know.

rffrydr · Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2012 6:55 pm Post subject:

HenryTo · Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2012 2:52 pm Post subject:

DNA sequencing: A personal story.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-15/harvard-mapping-my-dna-turns-scary-as-threatening-gene-emerges.html

rffrydr · Posted: Thu Feb 02, 2012 6:50 am Post subject:

http://finance.yahoo.com/photos/scenes-from-the-ces-show-1326401259-slideshow/2012-consumer-electronics-show-showcases-20120111-220530-061.html
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rffrydr · Posted: Wed Jan 04, 2012 6:23 pm Post subject:

Here it is, the magazine, NGM, that kicked it all off in the early 80's with the discovery of "the two Jims" identical twins separated at birth who managed to independently duplicate themselves right down to their son's names--with no interaction!

Now after 30 years of research has failed to produce any serious medicines nor explained the connection between a disease and its "expression" NGM ups the ante. The "answer" probably has something to do with why a shaft of wheat has ten-times the genes a human does--but fate will not be denied. Watch as "free will" slowly disintegrates before your eyes:

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2012/01/twins/miller-text

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rffrydr · Posted: Wed Dec 28, 2011 11:38 am Post subject:

...."Round-Up ready" people Twisted Evil

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HenryTo · Posted: Wed Dec 28, 2011 2:13 am Post subject:

Personalized medicine starting to become a reality. The 10-year prediction that I made in the first post in 2007 wasn't aggressive enough.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/dec/28/mayo-clinic-genomes-personalised-care?newsfeed=true

HenryTo · Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2011 12:29 am Post subject:

Another step in better DNA sequencing--with a focus on cancer patients:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewherper/2011/10/18/google-tech-investor-back-company-that-aims-to-bring-dna-sequencing-to-cancer-patients/

HenryTo · Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2011 12:26 am Post subject:

A whole new species:

http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/38932/?nlid=nldly&nld=2011-10-19

HenryTo · Posted: Fri Mar 18, 2011 8:07 pm Post subject:

Elon Musk (co-founder of Paypal, SpaceX, and Tesla) on the virtues of Rapid, low-cost, perfect DNA sequencing:

http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2011/03/17/elon-musk-on-the-3-inventions-that-will-change-the-world/?hpt=Sbin

HenryTo · Posted: Wed Dec 08, 2010 2:41 am Post subject:

DNA sequencing continues to be democratized:

http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/26850/?nlid=3860

rffrydr · Posted: Thu Sep 02, 2010 8:25 pm Post subject:

THE EXILED ONE

Craig Venter's cruise around the world: a decade's failed promise in genetic research, and a promise reborn in most unlikely of genes, bacteria.

Read ALL about it:

http://www.economist.com/node/16349358?story_id=16349358
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rffrydr · Posted: Fri Aug 13, 2010 9:50 am Post subject:

Bring your genes to Cal:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-12/uc-berkeley-backs-off-gene-test-program-for-students-blocked-by-state.html
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rffrydr · Posted: Sun Jun 13, 2010 10:45 am Post subject:

My mutation: there is no code....only interpretations of code:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/13/health/research/13genome.html

The informed comments really fill out this theme.
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HenryTo · Posted: Thu Apr 29, 2010 11:33 pm Post subject:

How the select few who have had their genomes sequenced learn to use that information for health care:

http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/25218/?nlid=2943&a=f

rffrydr · Posted: Tue Mar 30, 2010 6:25 pm Post subject:

No patents on genes:

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-genes31-2010mar31,0,6875637.story

Hybrids no problem as anyone who's driven around midwest rowcrops with their all-star seed posters can testify. Nothing natural about corn; and Luther Burbank became verb. But I don't think we'll be going that direction with people....outside of asia.

But what a mess, land rush on the human body. The theoretical limit, I suppose would be slavery reinvented--in the name of the free market!
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