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100,000 Californians To Be Gene Sequenced
eldavojohn writes "A hundred thousand elderly Californians (average age 65) will be gene sequenced by the state using samples of their saliva. This will be the first time such a large group has had their genes sequenced, and it is hoped to be a goldmine for genetic maladies — from cardiovascular diseases to diabetes to even the diseases associated with aging. Kaiser Permanente patients will be involved, and they are aiming to have half a million samples ready by 2013. Let's hope that they got permission from the patients' doctors first."
I don't live in California. Just what I need, some company taking and patenting my genetic sequence and suing me for using it.
Understanding the scope of the problem is the first step on the path to true panic.
This not (gene or genome) sequencing. Rather, it picks up single nucleotide changes (SNPs). Still valuable information, but no new mutation will be discovered with this method.
Sequencing would be a couple of orders of magnitude more expensive.
The good thing is that this kind of data will help us develop tests to predict the occurrence of many diseases, and perhaps understand their causes better.
The bad is that private insurance companies are likely to eventually *require* you to get a DNA sample, and possibly reject you if they determine your genes predispose you to old-age diseases.
Where it gets ugly, is that this will be yet another tool that could allow screening of unborn fetuses, and potentially selective abortions. I'm not personally against this. We're overpopulated anyways, but some people clearly don't like that idea.
nao, maybe they'll be able to start growing limbs back soon. and maybe they can make SENS work so we'll all be "effectively immortal" . god bless california. cause it's warm.
contribute at wikademia
I didn't see it in the article, but was consent obtained from each of these patients to use their DNA in this study? Or is this one of those OPT-OUT programs that companies think consumers like?
Yeah, let's hope they got the doctors' permission, because, you know, it's not like the patients have a say in it or anything...
The meek may inherit the earth, but the strong shall take the stars.
Let's hope that they got permission from the patients' doctors first.
I would think that getting the patients' permission would be a little more important.
DISCLAIMER: This post was not checked for speling and grammar- if you complain- you're a whiner
All bioinformaticists who are annotating this data.
I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
Great! Now we won't need social security numbers! We'll just use our DNA!
California needs samples of saliva. If you live in California, proceed directly to the capital and spit on the front door. Your state is counting on you.
At least that way they can get saliva samples of conservatives. Of course, in California, that's a sample size of about four, but it's a start...
"This post contains words, known to the State of California to cause thought. Wash brain thoroughly after reading."
They're not being sequenced, they're being genotyped on a SNP chip. There's a huge difference.
Maybe everyone should read the article. They're being genotyped (700,000 SNPs by Affymetrix array) not sequenced. There is a significant difference...
"This will be the first time such a large group has had their genes sequenced"
Obviously they have forgotten about the coal mine / medical file catalog / alien landing site, as seen mid-series on the X-Files.
Likely a scam to support 23 and me
As of 2008, it is illegal for insurance companies to require any information about a DNA sample.
Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act
http://www.genome.gov/10002328
One of the last things Bush did in Office.
The article seems to gloss over this BIG question.... Did they get the patients permission before they scan in their DNA and link it into their medical records?
If they didn't or aren't, then that is a big privacy violation with perhaps huge negative ramifications for those individuals (if any diseases are identified that aren't treatable but will impact their ability to get insurance).
Also breaks the doctor/patient trust entirely since your doctor is more or less stealing from you...
The article keeps repeating how diverse the participants in the study will be. But I'm going to guess that they won't find very many people who have genetic diseases which cause a person to die before they reach oh, say their 65th birthday.
"Mr. elderly Californian, I'm afraid I have some bad news for you . . . you have cancer."
"But I also have some good new for you, it's treatable."
"But yet again I have some bad new for you: you have the QZURVN gene, which our research indicates that you will die of heart disease in a few years anyway, so why should we bother treating the cancer?"
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
I live in Sweden and here we take DNA samples of all newborn and put the samples with SSN and parents name in a national database. The database can then be accessed by scientists for study. We have done this for decades. I haven't heard anybody here really care about being in the database.
And people wonder why I hate electronic records.
People will take on car payments, get a new cell, or something else, all before paying for their medical coverage. If the cost of coverage interferes with their ability to buy something they want they will declare the cost of coverage too high. Yet they see no problem fifty plus per month for a cell plan, much more for family plans, will probably have cable tv and one or two car payments.
For a large number of people it comes down to the fact they prefer to live in denial of the need and are just hoping if they hold out long enough someone else will pay for it, even if they tacitly acknowledge it will be through taxes that will increase and they will be paying it anyway.
In other words, they need to be forced to buy it. It just helps knowing others are forced as well.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
life insurance already requires a DNA sample. the labs just don't sequence it. you ever try to buy life insurance over 100K? they send the nice lady out to take your blood:)
All your DNA belong to us!
so they can clone them....
So i can take over the world pinky....
Of note, this is single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotyping, and NOT sequencing. Only 700K common variants will be genotyped. While individuals could certainly be identified in the database by their SNPs (as few as 24), this project does not employ high-throughput sequencing. The title of the summary is misleading.
"Well, it appears that DNA analysis proves that you are actually a Streptococcus mutans bacterium. I recommend against antibiotics or toothbrushing in order to extend your lifespan."
Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
"Let's hope that they got permission from the patients' doctors first."
Rather, let's hope that they got permission from the patients (or that their doctors did so).
What on earth? The patients' doctors are irrelevant here, legally and ethically. It is patient consent that matters.
This is not the same as sequencing their genomes. This will not provide a full sequence of each person's genome. It will look for specific mutations that have already been identified and tell us who has certain point mutations.
Think of it as the difference between having the full text of the file in the case of sequencing and having a count of the number of times the writer wrote "teh" instead of "the"
This is not to say that this study is without merit but it is not gene sequencing or genomic sequencing.
For more information on SNP arrays wikipedia is helpful and if you really want details you can talk to Affymetrix (I bet these are the arrays they will use).
Getting ready for real world Gattaca I see.
I can say without a doubt that Kaiser Permanente is hated...for many reasons. All of the worst things you've heard about managed care/hmos, etc crystalled in one company.
They could do this better in Florida.
...that your State Governor will activate Skynet and nuke the site from orbit.
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
I do not think that anyone has pointed out that even with samples sizes that big, we can only figure out the genetic architecture of complex disease to an extent that makes it no better than family history for predicting disease. In fact, I hazard it will still be an order of magnitude worse. Obviously, the researchers did not point that out to the health insurance companies paying for it because I am sure that they will still find many interesting things.
:(){
SNP 6 was about US$200 per sample the last time I checked (bulk purchase - I actually worked on SNP 6 data), so 100,000 samples is a contract worth about twenty million US dollars to Affymetrx, and you can probably pursuade them to do a few things for you if you give them a business that size. (like cleaning your laundry and ironing your shirts...)
Forget the patients' doctors. What about getting permission from the patients themselves?
linquendum tondere
Why in the world would you think they should have permission from the patients doctor, and not from the patients themselves?
It goes both ways:
I apply for health insurance and if they find me eligible, I dump them because I know I don't need THEM.
On the contrary, if they reject me, then I know that when my genetic curse eventually gets me, then it will be futile to pay big money for medical care like as dumping it down the drain, so I just choose not to pay, die early (everybody dies eventually) and save more of my assets for my family.
Both ways, THEY (the health "care" leeches) would have been better off if they didn't screen me in first place.
How about permission from the patient!
so they will be able to either deny any healthcare coverage whatsoever, or consider a genetic predisposition as a pre-existing condition, or push all these prospective patients into a profit-sapping assigned risk public healthcare program. What's next from our private for-profit healthcare death panels, forced euthanasia? Fascism, or the Corporate State, is based upon privatized profit and socialized risk We are very nearly all the way there. Soylent Green IS PEOPLE!