A step towards personalized prevention

A very useful paper from MIT discusses recent research on the humane genome and its potential for identifying contributors to disease, which may lead to preventive interventions. Despite the ballyhoo in the newsmedia much work remains to be done before the research is translated to useful practice. The authors note that "a dramatic increase in the number of genome-wide association studies, in which the genomes of many people are scanned to locate genetic variations that contribute to disease." Also, "work published last year by Broad researchers and others in the Diabetes Genetics Initiative identified several genetic changes that influence a person’s level of cholesterol — a known risk factor for heart disease.." A key Issue is "to prove that their model has real value in the clinic. “There’s an assumption that predicting risk automatically means health will improve,”