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Don't be scared. It's just one little genome:
Advances in technology have made it much easier, faster and less expensive to do whole genome sequencing — to spell out all three billion letters in a person's genetic code. Falling costs have given rise to speculation that it could soon become a routine part of medical care, perhaps as routine as checking your blood pressure.
But will such tests, which can be done for as little as $1,000, prove useful, or needlessly scary?
The first closely-controlled study [DOI: 10.7326/M17-0188] [DX] aimed at answering that question suggests that doctors and their patients can handle the flood of information the tests would produce. The study was published Monday in Annals of Internal Medicine.
"We can actually do genome sequencing in normal, healthy individuals without adverse consequences — and actually with identification of some important findings," says Teri Manolio, director of the division of genomic medicine at the National Human Genome Institute, which funded the study. Manolio wrote an editorial [DOI: 10.7326/M17-1518] [DX] accompanying the paper.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 28 2017, @09:16AM (4 children)
Why would you need your DNA sequenced often?
(Score: 2) by WizardFusion on Wednesday June 28 2017, @10:15AM (1 child)
Because the open database that stored all the information was hacked and the data deleted. They need to make sure they have your DNA on file at all times, just in case.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday June 28 2017, @11:13AM
FTFY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Immerman on Wednesday June 28 2017, @12:16PM
Yours - not a whole lot.
But how about doing a full sequencing of *all* the DNA in your bloodstream? Every pathogen, parasite, and symbiote sequenced and categorized. No more trial-and-error about figuring out what's causing your symptoms, or at least far less - we know you're carrying pathogens A, D, and R which might contribute to your symptoms, and that D has been present in your last several tests without causing apparent problems, so it's probably A and/or R that are the real problems.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 30 2017, @07:22AM
Cuz proprietary file formats FTW!