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By Carolyn Y. Johnson, Globe Staff Since scientists first mapped the human genome more than a decadeago, excitement has built about a new era of personalized medicine,in which people will ultimately be able to use the informationembedded in their DNA to better prevent and treat disease. But even as the technologies that decode genomes have gotten fasterand cheaper, questions have remained about how useful thatinformation will be to a doctor and a patient trying to understandrisk for a complicated disease caused by a combination of geneticand environmental factors, such as diabetes or cancer. A new study led by researchers at the Harvard School of PublicHealth adds to the emerging picture of how difficult it will be touse genetic information in the clinic to make meaningfulpredictions about risk for common diseases. The researchers studiedcommon gene variations and environmental risk factors that havebeen linked to breast cancer, type 2 diabetes, and rheumatoidarthritis. They found that knowing those genetic variations andincluding possible interplay between them and the environment --two genes that interact to increase risk more, for example -- apatient would get only a modest increase in risk prediction, of 1to 3 percent at most Although there are many genetic mutations that have been foundassociated with risk of some diseases, their clinical utility isstill hotly debated, said Hugues Aschard, a research fellow inepidemiology at Harvard and lead author of the study, published inthe American Journal of Human Genetics . Some scientists argue that risk models underperform because they donot factor in the interplay between genes and environment, Aschardsaid, but his modelling indicated that even if such effects arecommon and scientists can figure them out, the improvement interms of prediction will not change much. Jeffrey Barrett, a group leader at the Wellcome Trust SangerInstitute, said that the study highlights another difficulty inturning ever-increasing amounts of genomic information into usefulprognostic tools for common, complex diseases. He added that the study does not undermine the utility of studyingthe interplay of genes and environment in order to betterunderstand the biology of disease. Instead, the study illustratesthat the idea of DNA as destiny -- a cheek swab at birth lays out ababy s future struggles with diabetes or heart disease -- isextremely oversimplified. I think we have in the past overpromised a little bit:Personalized medicine is coming and it s going to revolutionizeeverything, Barrett said. It may mean that it s unlikelywe re ever going to use it in that Gattaca future way, youhave a DNA sequence and it will tell you everything about yourfuture. Carolyn Y. Johnson can be reached at cjohnson@globe.com. Follow heron Twitter @carolynyjohnson. I am an expert from led-swimmingpoollights.com, while we provides the quality product, such as China LED Inground Lights , LED Swimming Pool Lights, RGB LED Pool Light,and more.
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