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The Coming Health Care Revolution

Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal carried two different articles that were buried deep within the paper. The first reported that Genentech had discovered two genes linked to Lupus, raising the hopes of earlier diagnosis and better targeted treatment. The second article reported that researchers had found a genetic variant—KIF6—that is linked to an increased risk of heart disease.

The significance of these reports is that they offer further evidence of the accelerating pace of discovery in the field of genomics. As one person said of the Lupus discovery, “this takes us one steper closer to personalized medicine.”

I would caution against people getting overly excited about the notion of “personalized medicine” just yet, but it is coming. I say this because yesterday it was also announced that the International Genome Project was launched. In yet another bit of hyperbole, one researchers enthused that “This is a historic turning point in genomics.”

The project’s goal is to sequence the entire genomes of 1,000 people and, if successful, it could have a profound impact on our ability to better understand the risk factors underlying disease.

It will not, however, address all of concerns. This is because human health is terribly complex and a lot more than genetics plays a role in determining people’s health. To this end, a study at the University of Minnesota now suggests that one reason why red meat, fired foods and diet soda might be bad for us is because it tinkers in unknown ways with a person’s metabolism. As I have reported in the past, as result of such projects as the Human Metabolome Project, researchers are now also learning much more about how the multitude of different chemicals interact in our body and thus influence our health.

Together, these two projects—the Human Metabolome Project and the International Genome Project—are sure to take us a few steps further down the path of personalized medicine.

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Jack Uldrich is a writer, futurist, public speaker and host of jumpthecurve.net. He is the author of seven books, including Jump the Curve and The Next Big Thing is Really Small: How Nanotechnology Will Change the Future of Your Business. He is also a frequent speaker on future technology and future trends, nanotechnology, innovation, change management and executive leadership to a variety of businesses, industries and non-profit organizations and trade associations.

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