[LINK] Genome phone apps

[stephen at melbpc.org.au]

This will indeed be a real game-changer ..

Genome power is about to sweep world: Nobel laureate 

By Mark Metherell  June 9, 2011.
<http://www.theage.com.au/national/genome-power-is-about-to-sweep-world-
nobel-laureate-20110608-1ft6m.html#ixzz1OyZkotpC>


NOBEL laureate Barry Marshall plans to become the first Australian to 
post his own full genetic code, or genome, on the internet, even though 
it does reveal unsettling insights.

His nearly-completed six-billion-piece code shows he is at nearly three 
times higher lifetime risk of macular degeneration and double for 
testicular cancer and for Alzheimer's disease.

"If I develop Alzheimer's disease, that's bad luck, but it's not going to 
worry me," says Professor Marshall.

The power of the genome to reveal each individual's biological strengths 
and weaknesses will guide diagnosis and identify effective drugs for 
individual patients in a revolution about to sweep world medicine, he 
says.

"It is not going to be long before every Australian will be carrying 
their genome on a smart card.

"This is going to be an enormous and unprecedented help to their health," 
says the doctor, who swallowed a laboratory culture to prove that 
bacteria caused stomach ulcers.

It was an idea that confounded the medical orthodoxy but ultimately won 
him and Dr Robin Warren the Nobel prize.

At the National Press Club yesterday, Professor Marshall predicted that 
in a decade we would have our genome on our smart phones and be able to 
routinely gain access to those of prospective boyfriends or girlfriends.

People would get used to the swings and roundabouts of knowing their 
genetic make-up as the benefits to their health became clear and 
treatment got better-targeted.

He told of his wife's concern about her own mother's macular 
degeneration, which were allayed when a genome scan found she did not 
have her mother's gene for the blinding condition.

Treatments of conditions like high cholesterol would continue to improve 
as doctors took advantage of routinely upgraded refinements of genetic 
influences.

"Australians currently seem too paranoid to truly embrace genomics. Yet 
there will soon be thousands of human genomes publicly available," he 
says, pointing to the publishing of their genomes by gene map pioneer Dr 
Craig Venter and South African Bishop Desmond Tutu. 

His comments come as Australian health authorities grapple with how to 
authorise new drugs dependent on pre-genetic testing. He believes that 
the growing demand for personal genomes - already available in 
preliminary form for as little as $200 - will require a huge increase in 
experts to interpret the lengthy sequences of letters comprising the 
human DNA.

Professor Marshall says Australia, like the US, should legislate against 
discriminatory practices like higher life insurance premiums on the basis 
of genetic tests.

Ronald Trent, professor of medical molecular genetics at Sydney 
University, says that any data individuals publish that might be 
interpreted as having an adverse health risk could potentially be used by 
life insurance companies, but not health funds, to determine policies.

But Professor Trent said Australia and the US systems were not comparable 
given Australian measures like the Disability Discrimination Act, which 
prohibits employment discrimination on genetic grounds, and the 
availability of universal health insurance.

http://www.theage.com.au/national/genome-power-is-about-to-sweep-world-
nobel-laureate-20110608-1ft6m.html#ixzz1Oyeg0mkB

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Cheers
Stephen