Why on demand dna testing is set to transform medical diagnostics

[Rach]

On Ask The Experts which is a social media site whose focus is New Technology, an interview article talks about a new procedure which will increase the speed of DNA analysis and testing. It can be found in its ATE Science and Medical secion http://www.asktheexperts.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=155&Itemid=225

[Marat]

The limit on the significance of that technology is that while many diseases have a genetic component, so many different environmental influences interact with that genetic basis that it is next to impossible to predict who will actually develop the disease linked to the genes and who will not. A good example of this is type 1 diabetes, where you have only a 50% concordance for identical twins, who are usually reared under identical environmental circumstances. So even with identical genes and nearly identical environments, the actual development of disease can still be quite unpredictable. Relatively few diseases are like Huntington's Chorea, where one dominant gene determines for certain that the patient will develop the disease if he lives long enough.

 

And even then, how useful is it to detect the gene? There is always great excitement in the media whenever the genetic component of a disease is discovered, but we have known the causes of many diseases for centuries without being able to do anything to prevent them. Consider the impact of the discovery of a test for the Huntington's gene: All that has come of it is that many people have been hurled into utter despair for decades before they would otherwise have had anything to worry about. Another wonder of modern medicine!