Waverunner
Senior Member
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I'm sorry if anyone gets bored by this topic but I can't help myself. In my eyes, this could be the beginning of the golden ages of medicine. Lately I listened to a lot of podcasts from the Human Genome Project, as well as other related topics including the microbiome. I can't get enough of listening to these scientists.
Yesterday, while I drove to work, one scientist from a HGP conference said one of the most important things I heard for a long time. Actually, what he said was very plain forward:
"Today we can see things, that we simple couldn't see ten years ago."
And this could explain all the misery, we see with most illnesses today. This simple sentence explains, why there is no cure for chronic diseases, why we spend billions of dollars for more or less useless drugs. As long as we don't understand illnesses, it is pure luck, to actually find cures for them. And why don't we understand illnesses? Because we had no means to look at the molecular level. If one tries to understand how a microchip works, by just looking at it with his plain eyes, he will not come far. It's the same with diseases. But cheap genetic sequencing and the use of better computers, enables us advance to the next level of medicine.
Genetic sequencing and molecular biology, can give us the insights, to understand diseases at a molecular level. The pre-genetic age will be replaced by the genetic age of medicine and the genetic age could be the golden age. Imagine what it means, if there were no more side effects to drugs because we actually know what the drug does and how it interacts with the genome of a specific person. Imagine what it means, if you actually fix the genetic cause of an illness. No more treating symptoms but actually curing a disease! Imagine what it means, if we understand the molecular level of bacteria and viruses. No more unspecific, often harmful antibacterial or antiviral treatments. We sequence microbes, we analyse if they are friendly or hostile and in the latter case, we treat them with maximum efficiency.
Yesterday, while I drove to work, one scientist from a HGP conference said one of the most important things I heard for a long time. Actually, what he said was very plain forward:
"Today we can see things, that we simple couldn't see ten years ago."
And this could explain all the misery, we see with most illnesses today. This simple sentence explains, why there is no cure for chronic diseases, why we spend billions of dollars for more or less useless drugs. As long as we don't understand illnesses, it is pure luck, to actually find cures for them. And why don't we understand illnesses? Because we had no means to look at the molecular level. If one tries to understand how a microchip works, by just looking at it with his plain eyes, he will not come far. It's the same with diseases. But cheap genetic sequencing and the use of better computers, enables us advance to the next level of medicine.
Genetic sequencing and molecular biology, can give us the insights, to understand diseases at a molecular level. The pre-genetic age will be replaced by the genetic age of medicine and the genetic age could be the golden age. Imagine what it means, if there were no more side effects to drugs because we actually know what the drug does and how it interacts with the genome of a specific person. Imagine what it means, if you actually fix the genetic cause of an illness. No more treating symptoms but actually curing a disease! Imagine what it means, if we understand the molecular level of bacteria and viruses. No more unspecific, often harmful antibacterial or antiviral treatments. We sequence microbes, we analyse if they are friendly or hostile and in the latter case, we treat them with maximum efficiency.