Toward reading your own personal 'Book of Life'
Thursday, December 17, 2009 - 07:28
in Health & Medicine
What secrets about your risk for diseases are written in your own personal 'Book of Life' - the 30,000 or so genes that make you you? Advances in DNA-sequencing technology are bringing closer the day when it will be more economical for consumers to get an answer to that question, and others, by ordering up the deciphering of their entire genetic endowment - their 'personal genome.' That's the possibility that Chemical and Engineering News, ACS' weekly newsmagazine, raises in a compelling new cover story. With their Book of Life in hand, consumers and their physicians could map out strategies for the prevention, early diagnosis, and more effective treatment of diseases ranging from cancer to rare-genetic disorders...