Trend in Medicine

Many of you may be familiar with DNA sequencing and the Human Genome Project. For those of you who are not, the Human Genome Project is a project that setout to map the entire human genome in 1990. For over a decade, scientists raced to figure out the order of the nucleotides (DNA building blocks) in our genetic code and to claim the ultimate human blueprint. The human genome was officially declared complete in February 2001.

Once that race was over, a new race began to figure out which was the most efficient way to sequence DNA. Today, the method being used is Shotgun sequencing. As a result, what used to cost millions of dollars for people to get their genome sequenced, it now only costs about a thousand dollars due to this method.

The application of this new trend is personalized medicine. So what scientists are doing is they are sequencing a person's genome to figure out where in the genome there is a mutation or change that is causing the genetic disease or whatever illness the patients have. By doing so, they are capable of creating a medication that is meant to fix what that patient specifically has, instead of making medicine for a large portion of the population and going through a trial and error method. With this trend taking place, it is expected that in the future this will be more economical and that people will be able to get personalized medication to cure their illnesses.




To learn more about shotgun sequencing, go to: http://www.cybertory.org/exercises/seq1_shotgun/index.html