Getting personal

摘要

As the first conference on personal genomes opened earlier this month at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York, some present were wondering whether the event was a little premature. After all, only four peoples genomes have so far been fully sequenced and assembled, and it's still quite difficult to interpret the genetic variation found in them (see page 1014). But the participants soon began to realize that, in one sense, the meeting was overdue. Increasingly, private companies are offering personal genome scans and genetic tests for sale - and consumers are buying them. Meanwhile, some scientists earlier this week made public parts of their genetic and medical data through the Personal Genome Project, spearheaded by George Church, a geneticist at Harvard University. In this context, the ethical, legal and social issues usually sidelined at such gatherings kept intruding with uncommon urgency.