In an earlier post, I wondered a bit about the ultimate causes of cancer. For the last several decades cancer has been labeled as a genetic disease, an idea which we have chased with great fervor. Yet, It feels to me sometimes as though the evolving story of the causes of cancer is like a hall of mirrors in an amusement park in that there seems to be an ever receding chain of causal genetic alterations fueling cancer’s inexorable progression.
Let me share a bit of my past. There’s some fine irony here to enjoy.
I grew up fundamentalist Mormon. Mormons believe that we are practicing to be gods ourselves. Fundamentalist Mormons believe that Adam is God. That God himself came to earth to start the whole human race. And so too, (“and so too” is a nice Mormon phrase) we may become Gods ourselves. And then go build our own planets. And people them too. (That's right, the presidency is really just a stepping stone for Mitt Romney. He'll have more wives and many more kids when he gets his own planet someday.)
There comes a time when powerful memes that have become widespread begin to lose their value. Is it that time for ‘The $1,000 Genome?’ Mark Boguski thinks so. At the first annual Clinical Genome Conference in San Francisco this week, Dr. Boguski from Harvard Medical School said that the term is actually fallacious. The price of sequencing has come down.
Mike Snyder from Stanford and Eric Topol of the Scripps Institute held a live chat today on the future of Personalized Medicine hosted by Science Mag.
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Guest:
Cliff Reid, CEO, Complete Genomics Bio and Contact Info
Listen (2:20) Sequencing humans on both ends of life
Listen (4:08) Looking back at 2011
Listen (1:48) Business model validated
Listen (2:12) Partnership with DNAnexus
Listen (4:56) Standards too early a terrible thing for an industry
Listen (4:20) What happened with the stock?
Listen (6:26) Sequencing for the clinic
Listen (5:38) Path to $1000 genome
Listen (1:17) Plan in place to sequence millions of genomes
Listen (3:51) Personal path to DNA sequencing
Listen (7:05) Biggest challenge
Listen (2:08) Not a taker, but a maker of a revolution
Listen (1:00) Inspired by Churchill
Cliff Reid is the co-founder and CEO of Complete Genomics. The company sets itself apart by first, providing sequencing and data analysis as a service and second, by focusing exclusively on human DNA. Complete Genomics has announced several large scale partnerships this year, including one with Scripps Health for a “wellderly” study, looking at the DNA of healthy individuals with median age of 87 and with Inova Health systems to sequence the genomes of 500 babies and their parents. Cliff shares how he came to DNA sequencing and his thoughts on disruptive technologies. (Recorded Dec, 2011)
If we’re still in the Wild West of genomics, Steve Burrill could be called one of the major ranchers. In a landscape new and still quite unknown, Burrill has tamed a large plot and established Burrill and Co. as a place newcomers to the area as well as the local population can come for advice, knowledge of the surroundings, and perhaps a deal. Burrill is comfortable in his frontier lifestyle.
Guest:
Misha Angrist, Ph D, MFA, Author, "Here is a Human Being: At the Dawn of Personal Genomics"Bio and Contact Info
Listen (3:44) Misha 1: PGP a "microcosm" of our lives
Listen (7:03) Misha 2: Why take part in the PGP?
Listen (2:46) Misha 3: The Role of DTC Companies
Listen (1:15) Misha 4: Why not tell daughters about their risk?
Listen (2:13) Misha 5: "Consenting to uncertainty"
Listen (6:53) Misha 6: Experience with Francis Collins
Listen (0;57) Misha 7: X Prize
Listen (1:14) Misha 8: Impression of Jim Watson
Listen (5:05) Misha 9: George Church "the hero of the book"
Listen (2:19) Misha 10: Finally seeing his genome
Listen (3:32) Misha 11: How far along is the PGP?
Listen (4:11) Misha 12: 80 billion bases is a "metric shitload of data"
Listen (2:26) Misha 13 Detractors to the PGP
Listen (1:35) Misha 14: Genomic Resources
Listen (3:05) Misha 15: Sage Bionetworks
Listen (3:30) Misha 16: Is the PGP for everyone
Known as "PGP4," Misha was the fourth member of the original 10 to volunteer to the Personal Genome Project begun by Dr. George Church at Harvard. He has had his genome sequenced and made publicly available. Misha chronicles his experience with the PGP in his recent book, Here is a Human Being: At the dawn of Personal Genomics. Anyone can go to personalgenomes.org and see that Misha is severely allergic to pollen, ragweed and cats. He takes daily Udo’s Choice Adult Blend of Probiotic, Omega 3 Fatty Acids through fish oil, and Lexapro. He is a white, male with A- blood type, is right hand dominant, and wears prescription glasses for near and farsighted vision. One can also find any number of unique genetic variants that Misha carries, including A481T and R305W, variants of the OCA2, an albinism gene. Misha, however, is not albino. The book also tracks the race to the fastest, cheapest mode of next generation sequencing. Dr. Angrist is an assistant Professor at the Duke University Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy. We are happy to have him to mendelspod to talk about his book and about the issues around the intersection of genomes and society.
Who owns our genomic data? This question began a panel discussion titled “When People Share Their Genome on Facebook” at the second annual Beyond Sequencing conference in San Francisco Tuesday. The panel was led by Bio-IT World’s editor-in-chief, Kevin Davies, author of The $1,000 Genome. Another panelist, Dr. Pilar Ossorio, quickly deflected the question saying “it’s not a matter of ownership.” She posed another question, could a representation of one’s genomic data be copyrighted? According to Dr.
This week I attended the 3rd annual World Conference for Personalized Medicine held at Microsoft’s Computer Science Museum in Mountain View, California. A museum for the history of computing seemed appropriate for a new industry which has been dramatically impacted by the accelerating pace of technological innovation. The most oft quoted theme in the conference: that the price of sequencing an entire genome has dropped at breathtaking speed over the last few years. Just four years ago, the price for a genome sequence hovered in the tens of millions of dollars.
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