FOR the past decade, the human genome has loomed over us like a monolith,
waiting to be taken apart painstakingly, piece by piece until we could see how
it all fits together. Within a few weeks, we can expect the first detailed
sketch of that structure.
What impact will this knowledge have on all our lives? This is the question
at the heart of a special report in this week’s news section.
We know, of course, that it is about to spark a medical revolution. Just for
starters, doctors should be able to work out the intricacies of disorders
influenced not just by single genes, but by the combined effects of many genes
and environmental factors besides
(“Health and happiness”).
When we’ll reap the benefits of such
research is anybody’s guess, though. Some companies took a stab at the roles of
genes and applied for patents on the strength of their best estimates. They now
control the rights to those genes, which may slow down the revolution to a crawl
(“Your genes in their hands”).
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Undoubtedly, the genome will have other surprises to throw at us. Who would
have guessed that the ability to predict people’s susceptibilities to many
diseases could force insurance companies to charge everyone flat fees again? Yet
this may be the case
(“…or doom and gloom?”).
Most of all, the genome will tell us about our own make-up, even if we’re a
long way from understanding how the genome “makes a human”
(“Beg, steal or borrow”). People are
made up mainly of proteins and there are perhaps ten times as many proteins as
genes. Figuring out a machine with 100 000 interacting components will be a
colossal task. No, the genome isn’t an end in itself, it’s only the
beginning.
