The genetic age could be the golden age of medicine

[alex3619]

Waverunner, but there is a flip side to this argument. What if its both environment and what we call the trigger? In other words, a confluence of events. Not everyone will experience the same environmental impact, not everyone has the same genes, not everyone has any particular pathogen attack and persist the same way. What if its a combination of these factors? Also there is the issue of viral life cycles. Even when I was learning biochemistry up to 2002, it was presumed that the virus life cycle consisted of the lytic cycle: replicate, lyse the cell, spread, infect new cell, repeat. Now we know thats one of at least several lifecycles, and that "latent" viruses can be quite active.

Don't forget that if environmental factors are ruled out because not everyone with those factors has ME or CFS, then so are all the pathogens. Not everyone with any of these pathogens has ME or CFS. There is perhaps one caveat to that: most CFS patients (not defined as ME I think, but I could be wrong) have enterviral infections that are "latent", which really means they are following one of the other two lifecycles. This is the same virus family as polio, and I suspect its not a coincidence that ME used to be called atypical polio.

 

[Waverunner]

Alex, true, you only made valid points. In the end I always hope, that next generation sequencing not only helps us to decode the code of life but is also a mirror for technological progress. Hopefully we also advance at understanding how our immune system works, how we can diagnose infections and how we can treat them or normalize our immune system.

 

[alex3619]

Waverunner, its the increased processing power and the increased application of that to science that is making the leap: reducing costs, increasing speed of research, and automating research for large scale projects. That will only continue, and even accelerate. We have no idea how fast this can progress: ask me in twenty years!

 

[Waverunner]

Waverunner, its the increased processing power and the increased application of that to science that is making the leap: reducing costs, increasing speed of research, and automating research for large scale projects. That will only continue, and even accelerate. We have no idea how fast this can progress: ask me in twenty years!

I hope to reach these 20 years but if so, I will ask you in 2033

 

[Waverunner]

 

[natasa778]

Thanks for the video link Waverunner. Some excellent questions by Robert Nussbaum at 23-24min in, followed by an even better question by an unnamed guy ... if they don't address those issues (and by the look of it they are not going to) this will turn into yet another colossal waste of time and money.

 

[Waverunner]

Thanks for the video link Waverunner. Some excellent questions by Robert Nussbaum at 23-24min in, followed by an even better question by an unnamed guy ... if they don't address those issues (and by the look of it they are not going to) this will turn into yet another colossal waste of time and money.

I didn't understand the first parts he said but I fully agree, that it's very important to check the microbiome. Last time, when I spoke to a doctor about CD, he told me that they found a few genetic markers that increase the risk for the disease in a significant way. However, the genetic markers are not enough to explain the disease in every patient. So taking the microbiome (=environment) into account would be highly desired.

 

[natasa778]

I think that first part of the first comment was about phenotyping (or the lack of) in these projects - in other words if you don't have info on specific presentation and symptoms in your cohort - subgrouping/subtyping of the patients - the end result can easily end up being a mumbo jumbo of unusable data.

 

[Waverunner]

Craig Venter, president and founder of the J. Craig Venter Institute and Catriona Jamieson, director for stem cell research at the UCSD Moores Cancer Center, speak about the future of personalized medicine in which genomics, the study of genes and their function, is applied to pinpoint specific treatments for patients

Published on May 30, 2013

 

[Waverunner]

Touching story.

Lillian's story: How genomics is changing medicine

 

[Waverunner]

A viral infection seems able to trigger diabetes in susceptible individuals. Great story.

 

[Waverunner]

http://www.sciencealert.com.au/news/20131208-24678.html
TUESDAY, 13 AUGUST 2013
Study reveals genetic overlap between schizophrenia and depression

“We studied the genetic information of more than 75,000 people, using a type of genetic variation called single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs),” Associate Professor Wray said.
“A SNP is one of the most common genetic changes and involves the replacement of a single unit that makes up our DNA with another.
“Using about a million SNPs measured on each person, we found evidence of increased genetic similarities between people with the same disorder.
“We also found significant similarities between people suffering from depression, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.”

 

[Waverunner]

This is the future.

http://wi.mit.edu/news/archive/2013...on-can-activate-multiple-genes-simultaneously

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – By creating a powerful new gene regulation system called CRISPR-on, Whitehead Institute researchers now have the ability to increase the expression of multiple genes simultaneously and precisely manipulate each gene’s expression level. The system is effective in both mouse and human cells as well as in mouse embryos.

 

[Waverunner]

Wonderful 10 minute talk.

"MIT Computational Biologist Manolis Kellis gives us a glimpse of the doctor's office visit of the future, and uses his own genetic mutations to show us how a revolution in genomics is unlocking treatments that could transform medicine as we know it."

 

[Waverunner]

Published on Oct 4, 2013
In the SENS6 Conference's keynote address, Harvard University's Dr. George Church describes recent advances in genomics and in the reading, writing, and interpretation of -omes fields. He also discusses PersonalGenomes.org, his initiative to glean new medical insights by gathering data on the genotypes, microbiomes, environments, traits, and stem cells of participants. He proceeds to cover various methods of improving RNA sequencing to gather data on transcriptomes, then provides additional detail on engineering therapeutics for individual patients. Before concluding, Dr. Church discusses protective alleles and offers a broad overview of genomic engineering strategies. In particular, he notes the considerable promise the CRISPR approach holds for the field.