June 11, 2008

My Own Genome

Posted by Britt Erickson on June 11, 2008 in Chemistry is Everywhere

As I left the National Press Club yesterday afternoon, I thought, wow, maybe now’s the time. For only $1,000, I could buy my personal genome. I had just attended a briefing sponsored by the Genetics & Public Policy Center and was lucky enough to have been invited to lunch with the speakers beforehand.

I went into the discussion with basically no knowledge of the issues. I had no idea so many companies were selling personal genomes. Where have I been? Blame it on the kids, the long commute, the fact that I focused only on environmental issues for the past two years. I’m familiar with the technology used to sequence the human genome from my days working as a reporter for the news section of Analytical Chemistry, so it wasn’t completely uncharted territory. I even know what SNPs (single nucleotide polymorphisms, pronounced snips) are.

As I sat there listening to the panelists talk candidly around the lunch table, I just couldn’t believe how fast the world is changing. I’ve always thought of myself as one of the younger ones, but when I hear things like 20 year olds are sharing their personal genomes with each other on social networking sites, I start feeling old. I’ve never even used a social networking site.

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