In November 2009, the West family embarked on an unusual family project. Parents John and Judy and teenagers Anne and Paul each had their genomes sequenced, and enlisted a team of scientists at Stanford University to interpret the meaning of the combined 24 billion letters of DNA in those genomes.
The findings, published today in the journal PLoS Genetics, are the first attempt to analyze the genome of a healthy family, a feat that gives family members clues to their future risk of disease, points to lifestyle changes that may help mitigate those risks, and highlights the drugs that are most likely to help or harm them. One of the major benefits of sequencing a family is that it generates much more accurate data, by allowing scientists to filter out sequencing errors. More broadly, the project hints at the future of personal genomics, capturing both the potential for preventative medicine and the challenges in interpreting the meaning of the genome for people who are largely healthy.
To read the full, original article click on this link: A Family Learns the Secrets of Its Genomes - Technology Review
Author: EMILY SINGER
