Personal genome for the price of a car
The complete decoding of the genome has become available to ordinary AmericansCopper news
The cost of fully decoding the DNA of one person's chromosomes has fallen to a critical value of 50 thousand US dollars, ABC reports with reference to the journal Nature Biotechnology.
In this case, the whole procedure is carried out on one installation.
Work on decoding the human genome was started in 1995. For the first time, the human genome was read collectively in 2001 in a draft version, it took another two years to complete the project. To solve the problem, a budget of $ 300 million was required, within which several scientific organizations worked. At the same time, only "meaningful" fragments of the entire data corpus were decoded at that time.
A complete "letter-by-letter" record of the human genome was first published in 2007. The cost of this work amounted to $ 1 million. Despite the enormous reduction in cost, complete genome sequencing could not previously be considered as a routine method of clinical research.
50 thousand dollars, geneticists note, is, in order of magnitude, the cost of a car, which means that it is an amount available to an ordinary American family.
The information that is encoded in DNA sets the program for the development of a living organism. Environmental factors and the efforts of doctors can affect the severity of genetic traits and even delay the onset of programmed processes, but it is the hereditary "baggage" that determines what medical problems a particular patient will face and how effectively the body will fight the disease (even if the disease is caused by an external cause, like flu or burn).
Decoding the genome of a particular patient allows doctors to conduct targeted prevention of precisely those diseases to which this person is predisposed; predict individual reactions of the body; predict the effectiveness of prescribed medications and, finally, predict with higher accuracy the duration and quality of life awaiting this patient (unless, of course, accidents will bypass him).
The last of the listed practical consequences of sequencing individual genomes may lead to a revision of a number of principles of the health and social insurance system, which causes a wide discussion in developed countries.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru11.08.2009