Sequencing genome of celebrities – causing alarm
(Image credit: medicineworld.org)
This week b5 media’s Health and Wellness channel is focusing on celebrities health. Our focus is not on ‘tittle tattle’ and hot gossip about Angelina, Brad or ’Tomkat’ but rather a serious look at health issues that high profile individuals share with all of us.
In the genetics world, our ‘celebrities’ are the likes of Craig Venter and James Watson – pioneering geneticists but basking in the eye of the media.
The race to sequence genomes has resulted in some major PR, particularly for Craig and James. 454 is sequencing James Watson’s genome and Craig has announced some of his results in PLoS. TV star Larry King, cosmologist Stephen Hawking, Google co-founder Larry Page, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and junk bond trader Michael Milken have all paid a vast sum of money to have their genomes sequenced.
However, this is causing a degree of discomfort within the scientific community. They are worried that only the rich will benefit and it’s sending out the wrong messages to the public.
I have a different perspective. Research has to start somewhere. The very rich have always been the first to buy pioneering technology whether it’s a car, the latest computer or mobile phone. Their money will assist in further driving down the cost of the technology to such a price that will be affordable to us mere mortals.
Elaine Warburton www.geneticsandhealth.com
I’m not sure why you’d want to have your genomes mapped. I imagine that one day it’ll become really fast and mapping will be pretty standard practice. Almost like finger prints are today but there is so much more people can see from your genomes than your fingerprints.