Aggregated News
Can you imagine wanting to know whether your newborn baby will fall victim to Alzheimer’s disease decades down the road? What about cancer or diabetes?
Emma Warin can. In August she gave birth to a healthy 8-lb., 3-oz. boy. She agreed to participate in an unprecedented study in which researchers will map out every speck of DNA in her son’s genome, potentially revealing mutations that could cause health problems now and far into the future. Warin, a medical-device sales representative in Falls Church, Va., says the information will help her plan ahead for any issues. Still, she adds, “It’s a little scary.” (TIME Explains: The Science of Genome Sequencing)
When it comes to your health, the debate about how much information is too much is about to get a lot more complicated. Whole-genome sequencing (WGS), a scientific breakthrough less than 10 years old, is on its way to becoming a mainstream medical test. When researchers first mapped a human genome in 2003, the effort cost $2.7 billion. Now the price for analyzing a person’s genetic code is down to...
Emma Warin can. In August she gave birth to a healthy 8-lb., 3-oz. boy. She agreed to participate in an unprecedented study in which researchers will map out every speck of DNA in her son’s genome, potentially revealing mutations that could cause health problems now and far into the future. Warin, a medical-device sales representative in Falls Church, Va., says the information will help her plan ahead for any issues. Still, she adds, “It’s a little scary.” (TIME Explains: The Science of Genome Sequencing)
When it comes to your health, the debate about how much information is too much is about to get a lot more complicated. Whole-genome sequencing (WGS), a scientific breakthrough less than 10 years old, is on its way to becoming a mainstream medical test. When researchers first mapped a human genome in 2003, the effort cost $2.7 billion. Now the price for analyzing a person’s genetic code is down to...