Human genome draft sequence offers clues to health

Drugs that are genetically tailored to patients' needs are on the horizon.

By Susan J. Landers, AMNews staff. March 5, 2001.

Mapping Disease
As the results of the Human Genome Project began to shake out into clinical applications, this 2001-02 series detailed progress in the prevention and treatment of a variety of diseases and conditions -- both on the near horizon and possibilities far into the future.

Washington -- Scientists can now read the "book of life" and its genetic instructions for making a human being. And the implications for medicine are huge.

The book is actually in three volumes, noted Francis S. Collins, MD, PhD, director of the National Human Genome Research Institute. It's a history book, a shop manual and a textbook of medicine.

The textbook will provide physicians "immense new powers to treat, prevent and cure disease," Dr. Collins told scientists and reporters packed into a hotel ballroom on Feb. 12. He predicted -- but asked that he not be held to a certainty -- that by 2010, many primary care providers will begin to practice genetic medicine.

Dr. Collins, who leads a consortium of scientists at 20 institutions worldwide, and J. Craig Venter, PhD, CEO of the private U.S. firm Celera Genomics, were unveiling the draft sequence and initial analysis of the human genome.

These two rival initiatives, one public, one private, and each working independently, arrived at surprisingly similar conclusions about the number of genes -- many fewer than originally thought -- and a gene's ability to do double and triple duty in each cell.

Armed with a genetic map that is more than 95% complete, the search for applications will now be where the action is. The quantities of new research material that accompany the findings are expected to rapidly generate, for instance, more information on individuals' genetic predisposition to increased numbers of diseases.

Physicians also point to the likelihood that new prescription drugs will be developed that tailor treatment to a patient's genetic profile. The information may also help predict which patients are likely to have adverse reactions to certain medications. [...]