FOR the past decade, the human genome has loomed over us like a monolith,
waiting to be taken apart painstakingly, piece by piece until we could see how
it all fits together. Within a few weeks, we can expect the first detailed
sketch of that structure.
What impact will this knowledge have on all our lives? This is the question
at the heart of a special report in this week鈥檚 news section.
We know, of course, that it is about to spark a medical revolution. Just for
starters, doctors should be able to work out the intricacies of disorders
influenced not just by single genes, but by the combined effects of many genes
and environmental factors besides
(鈥淗ealth and happiness鈥�).
When we鈥檒l reap the benefits of such
research is anybody鈥檚 guess, though. Some companies took a stab at the roles of
genes and applied for patents on the strength of their best estimates. They now
control the rights to those genes, which may slow down the revolution to a crawl
(鈥淵our genes in their hands鈥�).
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Undoubtedly, the genome will have other surprises to throw at us. Who would
have guessed that the ability to predict people鈥檚 susceptibilities to many
diseases could force insurance companies to charge everyone flat fees again? Yet
this may be the case
(鈥溾�r doom and gloom?鈥�).
Most of all, the genome will tell us about our own make-up, even if we鈥檙e a
long way from understanding how the genome 鈥渕akes a human鈥�
(鈥淏eg, steal or borrow鈥�). People are
made up mainly of proteins and there are perhaps ten times as many proteins as
genes. Figuring out a machine with 100 000 interacting components will be a
colossal task. No, the genome isn鈥檛 an end in itself, it鈥檚 only the
beginning.