Genomics are not overhyped: they really can change medicine

As the Government announces a huge, pioneering project to sequence 100,000 genomes, Mark  Henderson looks at what needs to happen to make the technique live up to its promise

                           A pioneering project to map 100,000 genomes will revolutionise medicine in Britain

A few years ago, I spat into three test tubes and dispatched them special delivery to companies that will now, for a few hundred pounds, test your genes for clues to your future health. Though each service examined the same DNA, and evaluated the same diseases, each set of results was dramatically different. My lifetime risk of glaucoma, an eye condition, was as low as 2 per cent or as high as 36 per cent, depending on which service I chose to believe. One company thought my chances of a heart attack were twice as high as another.
Mine was the sort of experience that has fed a growing sense that the sequencing of the human genome, heralded by Bill Clinton in 2000 as the future of medicine, has failed to deliver on its promise. While DNA has since become much cheaper and simpler to read – the cost of a human genome is dipping below the magical figure of $1,000 a time – its meaning remains devilishly difficult to interpret. As my results demonstrate, this is especially true of the conditions that are the greatest causes of morbidity and mortality – diabetes and heart disease, stroke and mental illness.

I wish they’d give me an alcohol monitor wristband, too

All day long, I’ll happily use wristbands to record my steps, heartbeat, pulse, weight, food (calories in), additional exercise (calories out) and even water consumption

 Persistent binge-drinking criminals are to be fitted with an electronic tag capable of working out when they have had more than a permitted level of grog, which then alerts a police or parole officer via the internet

Most mornings I begin life-logging as I get up. I sync my mobile phone to my purple plastic Vivofit, and download all the data from the previous night about how well – or badly – I slept: patches of light sleep, fragments of deep sleep, moments when the car alarm next door woke me up completely. Great lumps of quantifiable ammunition for when I want to moan later about how tired I am.
They’re going to be collecting personal data in Croydon, too. But there, it’s part of an initiative to cut anti-social behaviour. Persistent binge-drinking criminals in the borough are to be fitted with an electronic tag, capable of working out when they have had more than a permitted level of grog, which then alerts a police or parole officer, via the internet.

Driver who used two phones at the wheel jailed for killing man

Marina Usaceva had made calls and sent texts before killing Sukhdeep Singh Johal

               Marina Usaceva had told police she was not using a phone after crashing her car into the back of another

A female driver who killed a man while using two mobile phones behind the wheel has been jailed by a judge who called such crimes “a plague on society”.
Marina Usaceva had told police she was not using a phone after crashing her car into the back of another, killing Sukhdeep Singh Johal, its driver.

Georgina Gibbs, prosecuting, told a court that Usaceva, 31, continued to deny using the phones despite the findings of a police investigation. She had previously been caught twice using her phone behind the wheel and her licence was endorsed in 2009 and 2012.
Usaceva, who admitted causing death by dangerous driving at an earlier hearing, was sentenced to six years in prison and banned from driving for eight years.
Judge Sean Enright told her: “If you were not sending texts at the time, then you were fiddling with your phone and that is what caused this collision. In my opinion there is not a scrap of remorse. Mobile phone use while driving is a plague on our society.”

David Rudisha is beaten by Nijel Amos in 800m final at Commonwealth Games as Hampden Park witnesses shock

Batswana upsets the odds at Hampden Park as Olympic champion David Rudisha has to settle for silver in 800 metres final

 

 Runaway success: Nijel Amos (left) took gold ahead of pre-race favourite David Rudisha

The head-on shot was bizarre. David Rudisha: tall, striding, the epitome of calm. Next to him Nijel Amos: arms swinging wildly, legs overreaching, muscles tensing.

That single image with 10 metres remaining appeared to reveal so much. In fact it was full of deceit. The king of middle-distance running was in trouble and Amos was about to pull off the biggest upset Hampden Park had seen this week.

This was not what the 50,000 spectators had expected to see. Rudisha is not just an Olympic champion or a world record holder. He is the greatest 800m runner in history.

The Kenyan’s victory at London 2012 was described as “the most extraordinary piece of running I have ever seen,” by double Olympic champion Lord Coe.

The Rudisha of Thursday night was not the same man. The 25-year-old has barely run since that race in London two years ago and the absence took its toll.

Neymar aiming to return to action with Barca on Aug 18

Brazilian soccer player and Barcelona forward Neymar waves as he wears a ''Yukata'', a casual summer Kimono, after receiving it as a souvenir from the organizer during a fan event in Tokyo July 31, 2014.

 Neymar's injured back is healing well and he is aiming to return to action in a friendly for his club Barcelona on Aug. 18, the Brazil forward said on Thursday.

Neymar fractured a bone in his back following a challenge from Colombia defender Juan Zuniga in Brazil's World Cup quarter-final and was ruled out for the rest of the tournament.

"I am recovering bit by bit from the injury and I will arrive in Barcelona at 100 percent," Neymar, who is due back at Barca on Aug. 5, told reporters at a promotional event in Japan.