Why Sequence Your Genome?

As one reporter puts it, "it’s worth remembering that it took $3 billion and about 13 years just to sequence one genome, and as of a couple years ago, it was so expensive and time-consuming, only about a dozen or so complete genomes were sequenced. Today, a company tells the world it will sequence 615 complete genomes for a single customer, and Wall Street gives it a paltry 5 percent stock lift".

The problem with sequencing your genome is this. You can take your car apart and lay out each part in a line. Maybe photograph each part and catalog it in a book. What does it mean? You still don't know how your car operated. Now imagine a new company trying to sell you a technology that makes the dismantling and cataloging of the parts 10 times faster. So what?

They need to put some wealth into their system.

I had a professor tell the class that most of the DNA in our genome is junk. It didn't do anything. He was referring to the fact that genes make proteins and that is doing something. The rest is doing nothing. Arrogance! When certain environmental changes occur a stem cell will decide to become a specific kind of cell. How does the linear sequence of nucleotides change? Perhaps not at all but certain genes will cease to "do something" while others will begin to "do something".

Of course there are many many scientists who are working to explain what DNA does. Geospiza for example, is a company that makes software for biologists to analyze genomic data. Biologists are taught to know what DNA is. They know about the nucleotides and the phosphate backbone and so on. But what do they know about translating a DNA sequence into an explanation of life? I guess that's what the software is suppose to help them do. That is the most interesting aspect of genome sequencing. If only there was a translator to accompany the sequencer! I don't believe one exists. Indeed, the field of Genetics is full of cargo cult scientists.

So where is the profit in the new superfast DNA sequencers? Those with the money and an almost religious faith in "science" will have their genomes sequenced and rely on their doctors to tell them if they are at risk for certain diseases. For example, the ApoE-ε4 gene isoform is tied to an increased vulnerability to Alzheimer's. There is nothing you can do about it but some people want to know what to expect. Probably not enough however to turn a profit. One would think that the rapid sequencer companies would have a genetics branch in R&D to explain what your sequence means. Imagine your future is written in book form in Spanish. Wouldn't you hope for at least a translator to tell you what the book says? The sequencer companies have a business model for half a product. They are too blinded by how neat the first half is.

What if the Genetics scientists were the real customers for the sequencing machines? Sequence one persons DNA every month for his/her life. How does it change? What do the changes mean? What if you had identical twins and one smoked and the other did not? What happens to the linear sequence of nucleotides on a genome then?

We have to build wealth into this system. It can be done. It is very interesting for reasons no one is talking about. It's not sexy and it's not going to result in a Nobel Prize for a young scientist anytime soon. Rather this kind of research should be done by a group who toils for the lifetime of the subjects being tested. After we all die the next group of scientists will still have to try and make sense of the variations. The telomeres fade away. We see anuploidy in cancer cells. Point mutations, silent mutations, hairpin loops and on and on. How does any of this happen and what does it mean?