Medical genetics: less noise, more realism!
Scientists saw an inflating genetic bubble
<url>A group of geneticists issued a warning about the inflating "genetic bubble".
Experts warned people against excessive hopes for genetic medicine, noting that while exciting prospects for the treatment of many diseases based on DNA analysis are very remote. The scientists' article appeared in the journal Science (Deflating the Genomic Bubble), and its summary is given in a press release from the University of North Carolina Medical School (Promise of genomics research needs a realistic view).
The authors note that in recent years there has been "breathtaking" progress in the field of genetic research, but the expectations associated with this area are extremely high. People expect that technologies based on DNA analysis will enter everyday medical practice in the very near future. Scientists add that a significant role in the dissemination of such ideas is played by the mass media. Such a wrong attitude leads, in particular, to the fact that people are careless about the prescriptions of doctors, hoping that genetic therapy will be able to rid them of the disease in the near future.
Expectations that genetics will change the approach to the treatment of diseases in the very near future lead, according to the authors, to overly optimistic interpretations of the research results. Scientists offer an approximate strategy that should help normalize attitudes to genetic research. The first recommendation implies a reassessment of priority areas of funding: the authors believe that it is necessary to allocate more funds to study the behavior of people in their treatment.
The second council prescribes both scientists and journalists to take a more responsible approach to the evaluation and presentation of research results and pay more attention to their verification and confirmation. Finally, the authors urge scientists to more carefully check the effectiveness of a new technology before putting it into practice.
Indirectly, the researchers' concerns are confirmed by a recent work, the authors of which found that about 20 percent of DNA sequences belonging to species other than Homo sapiens are contaminated with human DNA inclusions. The researchers analyzed the genetic data of two large DNA databases - European and American. The sequences available there are used in a huge number of studies and, among other things, serve as samples for comparison, which scientists are guided by when deciphering new sequences.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru21.02.2011