Your Genome for the low price of $999!

For $1,000 bucks, you can get your entire genetic code and its secrets. And it's only getting cheaper!

The machine itself takes up as much space as a printer, it does an entire genome in a single day, and costs only $100,000; making it affordable for medical practices.

For now, research labs will be the main customers, to obtain the complete genome sequence of people with cancer or autism, for instance, to seek out a disease's underlying genetic causes and ways to treat it.  In the very near future the door will open to people who are not ill.

The Data Deludge Revolution?

One problem is that the costs only start with the actual sequencing. The cost of understanding the sequence will be much, much higher. For example, in one study the sequencing cost $48,000, but because it found 2.6 million DNA misspellings and 752 other genetic glitches, it took a few hundred thousand dollars worth of labor to understand what the sequence meant. My wife is currently working to improve data quality when sequencing cancerous tumors.

It would take a genetic counselor roughly 5 hours to explain what a typical genome means, further adding to the true cost. If you want me to recommend a job for your kids?

GENETIC COUNSELLING!! We do not have nearly enough to meet the need if sequencing becomes widespread. Will doctors pick up the slack? 90% of patients trust their physician to explain genomic data to them, and 90% of physicians say they don't feel comfortable explaining genomic data...MDs, go figure.

The genomic revolution has arrived! And herein lies the crux of the matter.

Will you want to know?

You'll know if your baby will have a genetic disease, such as autism. In some instances the disease will be curable. In others, you'll know the dreadful future of this baby. Will you want to know?

Babies will certainly be first in line for sequencing. The US and Canada already screen newborns for at least 29 genetic diseases. But we need to be careful how we utilize this information. Do you tell a newborn's parents his apoE status? That is, whether he has the form of a gene that raises the risk of Alzheimer's disease? Will you want to know?

You'll know your chances of getting a variety of different diseases, such as alzheimer's or cancer. Will you drastically change your quality of life to prevent these diseases?  Will you live an entire lifetime worried, but well? Will you get the disease anyways!? Will you want to know?

Insurance companies and businesses may one day get a hold of your code. Can you get a discount on insurance with an impecable genetic code? Can you get insurance at all with a code plagued with error? Will Tobacco, drug and even food companies focus their marketing to those that show a susceptibility to addiction?

What if the information becomes public? Will a first date involve a comparison of eachothers genetic makeup? If you're incompatible for producing healthy offspring, do you stop from getting to know someone that could have been your, for the lack of a better term, soul mate? Will you want to know?

EVERYONE carries genes that predispose them to more than one serious or lethal disease. Bioethicists are only beginning to study how that knowledge might affect someone's decisions, from marrying or having children to saving for retirement.

The cost of sequencing will continue to plummet. A "zero-dollar genome" is already forseable, making it likely that it will be a part of routine clinical care.

And here is my microbe spin. There are more bacterial cells in you and on you then there are human cells. What about their DNA? Welcome to your METAgenome! Soon you will know the sequence of your human cells and all the bacterial cells that make you, you! There are many mysterious and still unnamed genetic diseases that are linked to the genetic makeup of your bacteria, and this information will soon be available for solving these riddles.