Internet DNA-ting: I'll show you mine if you show me yours

Wed Jun 08, 2011 10:45 pm » by **Mob 2,0**

THE Nobel laureate Barry Marshall plans to become the first Australian to post his full genetic code, or genome, on the internet, even though it reveals some unsettling insights.

His nearly-completed 6-billion piece code shows he is at nearly three times the risk of macular degeneration and double for testicular cancer and for Alzheimer's disease.

''If I develop Alzheimer's disease that's bad luck but it's not going to worry me,'' Professor Marshall said.

The power of the genome to reveal each individual's biological strengths and weaknesses will guide diagnosis and identify effective drugs for individual patients in a revolution about to sweep world medicine, he said.

''It is not going to be long before every Australian will be carrying their genome on a smartcard,'' said the doctor who swallowed a laboratory culture to prove that bacteria caused stomach ulcers. It was an idea that confounded the medical orthodoxy but ultimately won him and Dr Robin Warren the Nobel Prize.

At the National Press Club yesterday, Professor Marshall predicted that in a decade we will have our genome on our smart phones and be able to routinely access those of prospective boyfriends or girlfriends.

He said people will get used to the swings and roundabouts of knowing their genetic make-up as the benefits to their health become clear and treatment gets better-targeted.

He told of his wife's concern about her mother's macular degeneration which were allayed when a genome scan found she did not have her mother's gene for the blinding condition. ''So her mother cried when she found she had not passed the gene on to my wife.''

Treatments of conditions such as high cholesterol would continue to improve as doctors took advantage of routinely upgraded refinements of genetic influences.

''Australians currently seem too paranoid to truly embrace genomics. Yet there will soon be thousands of human genomes publicly available,'' he said.

His comments come as Australian health authorities grapple with how to authorise new drugs dependent on pre-genetic testing. He believes that the growing demand for personal genomes - already available in preliminary form for as little as $200 - will require a huge increase in the number of experts to interpret the long sequences of letters comprising human DNA.

Professor Marshall says Australia, like the United States, should legislate against discriminatory practices, such as higher life insurance premiums, on the basis of genetic tests.

Ronald Trent, Professor of medical molecular genetics at Sydney University, said any data that might be interpreted as having an adverse health risk could potentially be used by life insurance companies, but not health funds, to determine policies.

But Professor Trent said that Australia and the US were not comparable given Australian measures such as the Disability Discrimination Act - which prohibits job discrimination on genetic grounds - and the availability of universal health insurance.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/lifemat ... z1Oif8QFYx

Wed Jun 08, 2011 10:50 pm » by **TheDuck**

If you haven't seen this movie you should watch it > http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119177/

You'll see what I mean, pretty good flick aswell :cheers:

Wed Jun 08, 2011 10:57 pm » by **Mob 2,0**

theduck wrote:If you haven't seen this movie you should watch it > http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119177/

You'll see what I mean, pretty good flick aswell

i already know what you mean :cheers:

yeah bro ive seen that movie very good :flop:

Wed Jun 08, 2011 10:59 pm » by **99socks**

demobe wrote:

''It is not going to be long before every Australian will be carrying their genome on a smartcard,''

Wed Jun 08, 2011 11:12 pm » by **TheDuck**

demobe wrote:
theduck wrote:If you haven't seen this movie you should watch it > http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119177/

You'll see what I mean, pretty good flick aswell

i already know what you mean

yeah bro ive seen that movie very good

Awesome man! I liked it to, for anyone that missed it > http://www.letmewatchthis.ch/watch-2974-Gattaca

Wed Jun 08, 2011 11:45 pm » by **Mob 2,0**

99socks wrote:
demobe wrote:

''It is not going to be long before every Australian will be carrying their genome on a smartcard,''

they want to go digital. and that's exactly where we are heading

Thu Jun 09, 2011 12:01 am » by **Cornbread714**

Welcome to the wonderful world of eugenics!

No more messy, sloppy, random selection romance! Don't choose your mate and future offspring based on unreliable factors like pheromones or intuition! That's all in the past!

Are you ready?