?The "low hanging fruit" of genome-related health care will be knowing which drugs are likely to treat you best, says science journalist Carl Zimmer.“唾手可得”的基因組相關(guān)醫(yī)療服務(wù)將幫助你了解何種藥物對自己療效最好,科學(xué)記者卡爾·奇默(Carl Zimmer)說。
? 撰文\播音:史蒂夫·米爾斯基(Steve Mirsky) 翻譯:陳美娟 校對:張藝簫
? “I think if?genome sequencing?gets just super cheap then it’s…probably very soon going to make sense to just sequence all your DNA.” “我認(rèn)為,如果基因測序費變得特別便宜的話……可能很快你就能對你所有的DNA測序了。” Science journalist Carl Zimmer, author of the book?She Has Her Mother’s Laugh: The Powers, Perversions and Potential of Heredity. Zimmer spoke last month at?New York University’s Journalism Institute. Right now, commercial genome services only look at a small percentage of all your DNA. But as the cost plummets, you’ll get your entire genome.? ? 科學(xué)記者卡爾·奇默(Carl Zimmer)是《她有她母親的笑聲:遺傳的力量,保留與潛力》的作者。奇默上個月在紐約大學(xué)記者組織上做了發(fā)言?,F(xiàn)在,商用基因服務(wù)僅僅能測試DNA的小片段。但當(dāng)檢測費用下調(diào)之后,你將能得到完整的基因數(shù)據(jù)。 “Then the issue will become, well, what do you use your genome for in terms of your health. A lot of people will actually benefit from something I learned by looking at my genome, which is, that if God forbid I were to get hepatitis there are certain drugs that won’t do me any good. Because I have certain genes. Pharmacogenomics, as it’s called. I think that pharmacogenomics might be kind of the low-hanging fruit of genome sequencing. Because, doctors so often, if you get sick, they’re like, well, let’s try this. It might be hepatitis, it might be depression, all sorts of things, like, well, that didn’t work very well, let’s try this. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could just skip the stuff that doesn’t work and go to the stuff that does? So that might be kind of where medicine goes in terms of using our genomes and understanding how heredity affects your health.” “未來醫(yī)療服務(wù)關(guān)注點將會變成,利用基因組數(shù)據(jù)來維持健康。許多人的確能和我一樣因為了解自己的基因組信息獲益,我了解到的是,如果老天不讓我得肝炎,某些藥物對我來說肯定沒有一點作用。因為我攜帶特定基因。這個學(xué)科被稱為藥物基因組學(xué)。我覺得懂得藥物基因組學(xué)就相當(dāng)于接受簡單易得的基因組測序。當(dāng)你不舒服的時候,醫(yī)生通常都會說,我們來嘗試檢查一下。你的病可能是肝炎,也可能是抑郁癥,你的這個指標(biāo)不正常,再來檢查一下下一個指標(biāo)。如果我們能夠跳過這些無效的步驟,直接切入疾病進展不是更好嗎?所以未來醫(yī)療服務(wù)可能會發(fā)展到利用基因組數(shù)據(jù)了解藥物作用位置,以及理解遺傳因素如何影響人的身體健康。”