GENOME FORECAST FOR THE FUTURE

So what will the next 50 years or so look like in medicine?

Having the essentially complete sequence of the human genome is similar to having all the pages of a manual needed to make the human body. Researchers and scientist now have to figure out how to read the contests of the genome and understand how the parts work together in order to discover new insights to human pathology. Individualized analysis based on each person's genome will hopefully lead to preventive medicine. We'll be able to learn about risks of future illness based on DNA analysis.Then, through our understanding at the molecular level of how things like diabetes or heart disease come about, we should see a new interventions, many of which will be drugs that are much more effective and accurate than those available today. (Genome.gov, 2013)

Most new drugs based on the completed genome are still perhaps 10 to 15 years in the future, although more than 350 biotech products - many based on genetic research are in currently being tested in trials. It usually takes more than a decade for a company to conduct the kinds of clinical studies needed to win marketing approval from the Food and Drug Administration. (Genome.gov, 2013)