Question of the Year
Almost 15 years ago—April, 1992—Nature Genetics was launched as the first of the Nature research journals. Last year we were discussing ideas for commemorating this anniversary, following up on the ‘retrospective’ supplement that we published to celebrate ten years of NG (by the way, see here for an amusing take on the whole issue of anniversary issues). We decided on a more forward-looking theme this time, and stimulated by the brilliant annual questions that edge.org asks of its contributors and friends, we decided to launch our own ‘Question of the Year’. But what to ask? In the end, we decided on the topic of sequencing, given how much attention has been paid in recent months to technologies that may bring down the cost of sequencing substantially. What would geneticists actually do with all of this sequencing power? We’re asking this question to a select group, and the first 20 responses have been posted. An additional 5-10 replies will be posted every month until October, and we hope everyone finds them to be as provocative as we do.
Comments
If this will come into reality, that will lead to very important clinical applications which will help large part of the humanity. However, we must also think what will happen if such easy to get method will be used against the individual person (like insurance companies).
Beside this question, there are other big questions like:
What will happen if stem-cell therapy will cost 1,000 $?
What will happen if cloning of human being will cost 1,000 $?
If the humanity will have such scientific capabilities (low-cost tool) then we will be in new world with different attitude toward human being. That attitude will be also relevant to any living organism.
But we must be cautioned. Every new scientific tool may be used for good (right) or bad purposes. The scientific community as well as regulator authorities must take care when developing new technologies that can be easily accessed by group / person that has criminal purposes. Such new technologies must be developed under the needed safety environment.
Let work toward safer world for the humanity. prldh@walla.co.il
Posted by: Dr. Hovevey-Sion David | February 24, 2007 10:42 AM
I would definitely go for excavating the function of umpteen orphan genes in the genomes.
Importantly, as we are in the greater need of identifying ourselves which sequening methodology is the best, we also need to clutch the pros and cons of the recent advancements in sequencing technology like Optical Map technology.
Sincerely
prash
Posted by: Prashanth Suravajhala | February 27, 2007 11:50 AM