December 17th, 2009
In genetics and genomics, it’s also Personal
Most things in life are ultimately personal. Certain unnamed authors, for example, can launch a new blog with grand ambitions, only to have personal holiday and family matters divert their attention for a few weeks (ahem…sorry about that!). “Personal” often trumps public, beats out ambitious, and generally jumps first in line before many other factors in our lives.
That’s also true in the real world aspects of genetic and genomics. When someone thinks about understanding their genetic code, lots of factors come into play, many of them deeply personal. But in official circles, such personal issues often get relatively little attention. For the genomic era to take off, that needs to change.
That idea may sound counterintuitive. Since everyone’s DNA ultimately so individual, how can personal aspects of testing and genome analysis gotten short shrift? The answer is summed up by four letters – “ELSI.”
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