Emerging Trends

TREND 2: THE GENOME PROJECT

                 THE WHEN, WHAT & HOW

                                 ARE YOU READY? HAVE THE LAST WORD!

Emerging Trends:

Dr Leroy Hood’s Human Genome Project originally conceived in 1982 is considered to be the next and last big frontier for human discovery on earth. It is expected to change the nature of medicine and how we think of ourselves. Who knows what kinds of new twists this will bring: gene banks (like blood banks) for designer genes, gene donors with special traits that can produce certain proteins that may treat a certain medical condition, gene surgery, gene manipulation and combination.  Gene therapy is already well underway.

The long and short of it: sperm banks were controversial, but gene banks and gene tinkering will blow the lid off the whole concept of designer kids. Where do we stop? Like all things to do with medical ethics, the debate will rage on for years.  The marketplace will forge ahead heedless and render disagreement moot after the first crop of designer children, each with a life expectancy of 200 years, are unveiled to the world by 2020.

Next Opportunities:

There are obvious research opportunities for therapies: medical, cosmetic, and every other genetic nook and cranny, then there are legal tangles likely to keep ethicists and practitioners busy for years to come. Soon the debate over the Microsoft operating system will repeat itself when a fight commences over whether or not the findings of the genome project belong in the public domain or can be trademarked. Who will reap the riches made available by the Human Genome Project? No one seems to want to take the bull by the horns. If the Justice Dept does not want another Microsoft in 20 years, it better follow the research and set ground rules for what constitutes fair play on the new frontier. It will be fertile ground for lawyers as well as researchers for at least the next 10 years.  Just as the Internet has been, the Genome will become part of our daily vocabulary.

How do you and I, Joe and Jane or Carlos and Carlotta benefit from this new frontier? We can buy in early on stock of companies at the forefront like Celera Genomics who have monopolized gene research and might be the next Microsoft in the gene world, but also in companies producing specific genetics research based products and services.  Companies in the world of genetic technologies are positioned like the Internet startups of 10 years ago.  E-mail was so cool then…we thought the world had radically changed…till the World Wide Web hit.  Now the big thing is real time streaming video.  Stay tuned for opportunities; it’s still a little early to fully flesh them out.  The public response and level of government regulation will define the field and control the speed and pervasiveness of its products.

One thing is for sure, the Genome Project has forever shifted medicine from being a reactionary field to one of the 4 Ps: Predictive, Personalized, Preventive, Participatory.

Let your imagination run wild.

Create the future and smell the roses, it’s your move!