Personal Genomics in the Classroom: Students Sequence Themselves
By Monya Baker,
Nature News Blog
| 10. 11. 2012
Medical and graduate students will get the chance to sequence and interpret their own genomes in what is being billed as the first-ever course to offer whole-genome sequencing.
Mount Sinai Medical School in New York is offering an elective course called ‘Practical Analysis of Your Personal Genome’ this year. The goal is to teach upcoming physicians how sequencing information might affect clinical care.
Students can choose to sequence their own or an anonymous genome. This will reveal several million variants, many with known implications for disease and health, and many more with unclear significance. Students may learn their risk for common diseases such as cancer or diabetes and also whether they carry mutations that could cause single-gene disorders in their children.
Mount Sinai will also use questionnaires to find out whether students opting to analyse their own genomes know more about sequencing and how they feel about the utility and psychological impact of whole-genome sequencing. The 20-person class comprises graduate and medical students as well as junior faculty, the school said in an
announcement.
Students analysing their own blood...
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