3 ms·

Genomics in general has failed to live up to its promises to revolutionize medicine. Why will a cheaper version of the same thing fare significantly better?

lifeisstillgood 14y ago
I struggle to believe this is true - as a simple one the different cancers that can be identified by gene sequencing tell doctors which treatments will be more or at all effective even when physical symptoms look similar. There are i am sure many more examples - what do you expect - a couple of flashing LEDs and hey presto cured?
jostmey 14y ago
Really? By what standard are you holding this revolution? From my perspective, the field is growing rapidly and I believe it will eventually take off.
- monochromatic 14y ago
  See, e.g., http://pipeline.corante.com/archives/2010/06/18/the_economic_impact_of_the_genomic_revolutions_failure.php http://pipeline.corante.com/archives/2010/06/18/the_economic...
  - Retric 14y ago
    Don't confuse value with economic activity. Painkillers are a perfect example of something that's cheap because of manufacturing costs but whose impact on use is extreme.
Retric 14y ago
It does not show up as just one thing. There are several 'wonder' cancer drugs for example that came from analyzing DNA and people know to use them by doing DNA sequencing. It's also helped 'cure' several rare but debilitating diseases. Honestly, it's rapidly approaching the value of antibiotics which clearly was a major revolution. Anyway, the reason why full DNA sequencing is so important has a lot to do with research. When you know what some sequence does then you can look for that. But, being able to build a database of say 100,000 peoples full DNA sequence for say a billion or less let's you look for those sequences far more easily.
- monochromatic 14y ago
  Approaching the value of antibiotics? That's a pretty bold claim, and it seems entirely unsupported.

lifeisstillgood 14y ago

I struggle to believe this is true - as a simple one the different cancers that can be identified by gene sequencing tell doctors which treatments will be more or at all effective even when physical symptoms look similar. There are i am sure many more examples - what do you expect - a couple of flashing LEDs and hey presto cured?

jostmey 14y ago

Really? By what standard are you holding this revolution? From my perspective, the field is growing rapidly and I believe it will eventually take off.

monochromatic 14y ago
See, e.g., http://pipeline.corante.com/archives/2010/06/18/the_economic_impact_of_the_genomic_revolutions_failure.php http://pipeline.corante.com/archives/2010/06/18/the_economic...
- Retric 14y ago
  Don't confuse value with economic activity. Painkillers are a perfect example of something that's cheap because of manufacturing costs but whose impact on use is extreme.

Retric 14y ago

It does not show up as just one thing. There are several 'wonder' cancer drugs for example that came from analyzing DNA and people know to use them by doing DNA sequencing. It's also helped 'cure' several rare but debilitating diseases. Honestly, it's rapidly approaching the value of antibiotics which clearly was a major revolution. Anyway, the reason why full DNA sequencing is so important has a lot to do with research. When you know what some sequence does then you can look for that. But, being able to build a database of say 100,000 peoples full DNA sequence for say a billion or less let's you look for those sequences far more easily.

monochromatic 14y ago
Approaching the value of antibiotics? That's a pretty bold claim, and it seems entirely unsupported.