Forbes Special Report: MyGenes - Google medicine--sharing genetic information on the Web--will lead to cures

Excerpt:
"Routine lab tests using cells swabbed from the inside of a cheek can already expose genetic variations associated with cholesterol, cancer and hundreds of other traits and diseases, both common and rare. Coming soon: home test kits as simple and cheap as a pregnancy-test dipstick. Then will come dipsticks for the genes that control hormone levels, brain chemistry, nerve functions and metabolic rates--which, in turn, affect stress, pleasure, irritability, aggression, impulsive behavior, suicidal tendencies, alcoholism and sexual proclivities. And then, finally, the dipstick that reveals all. A $10 million prize has been offered for development of technology that can sequence 100 human genomes in ten days, with another $1 million tossed in for sequencing 100 named celebrity volunteers. Within a few decades at most, imaging your entire personal genome onto your hard drive--a mere 3 gigabytes of code currently stored on 6 tightly folded feet of your DNA--will be as easy as imaging your face.

Then you can post it on Craigslist. "SWM (HNPCC-free) seeks SWF, no BRCA1/BARD1." (Translation: "Your breasts had better be as good cancer risks as my colon.") If you doubt people would ever go there, you don't know where they've already been."

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Alex

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