A professor at Stanford University has had his entire genetic code sequenced for less than $50K. And it’s going to get cheaper and cheaper until you can just walk into Wal-Mart and have it done for $5.95.

This is a huge deal, says Stephen Quake, who believes that the process will open the door to the world of “personalized medicine.”

“This is the first demonstration that you don’t need a genome center to sequence a human genome. It’s really democratising the fruits of the genome revolution and saying that anybody can play this game,” Quake told the UK Independent.

“This can now be done in one lab, with one machine, at a modest cost. It’s going to unleash an enormous amount of creativity and really broaden the field. Some of the doctors are starting to poke and prod me to see how they can couple my genome with medicine.”

There are advantages to knowing in which ways your health is at risk. It’s an opportunity to tailor medical treatment to your genetic makeup.

On the other hand, don’t think this information is going to be used strictly for your own benefit. All this data will be fed into computers so that insurance companies can sort out ways to maximize profit.

If it turns out you’re prone to heart disease 10, 15 or 20 years down the road, expect to get a note from your health care provider telling you that from now on you have to live on tree bark and grass clippings.

And if you don’t well, whatever damage you’ve caused is your own doing.

Imagine if, as is the dream of many Republicans — and some Democrats as well — that everyone is required to purchase health insurance on the open market. If you’ve got high risk of heart disease, Alzheimer’s disease, or cancer in your future, imagine getting a reply to your health insurance application that says, “Congratulations! You’ve been accepted!”

Yes, and there are some condos in Florida I would like to show you.

None of this is to say that genetic code sequencing should or will be stopped. It won’t. Just another reason to buckle your seatbelt.

As the good professor himself said:

“The $1,000 genome is just around the corner, and when everybody will be able to have their genome sequenced, what’s it going to mean for privacy, health insurance and decisions about human health? The technology is not going to let people escape these ethics and policy questions.

“Are we going to require people, based on their genetic inheritance, to modify their behavior, or just suggest it? Your insurance company could ask you to have a certain diet or they’re not going to cover you. Is that what we want?”





