Genes Show Limited Value?
About a month ago, the New York Times had a front page article called, ‘Genes Show Limited Value in Predicting Diseases’ (April 16, 2009). The article discusses the disappointing results which genome-wide association studies have provided in the prediction of disease risk and was a reaction to commentaries published in the April 23 issue of New England Journal of Medicine.
While I agree with the premise that genome-wide association studies has not provided strong evidence for genetic causes of common diseases, these studies have not been useless or a waste of time. Every step in research will give us more information and help our understanding of the nature of complex disease. Common diseases will inherently be caused by complex mechanisms radically different from the traditional Mendelian model of single gene disorders.
In the past 10 years, our understanding of genetics and molecular mechanisms has changed dramatically. With the discovery of small molecules (siRNAs), and new genetic mechanisms (RNA activation and copy number variants) and their potential interaction with environmental factors assessing disease risk has jumped up to a different level of complexity. Personalized medicine is still a far stretch away in my mind- we are still discovering what factors are important in order to accurately predict disease risk.
It is an exciting new world order we are entering in genetics field and I am personally eager to see how it all pans out!
