Dr. Sam Broder, chief medical officer and vice president of Celera Genomics -- the for-profit company racing towards a complete map of the human genome -- offered optimistic predictions on the future of medicine to a standing-room-only crowd in Filene Auditorium last night.
The predictions were based on the progress of the Human Genome project, which Broder said would probably be complete by the end of the year. The project's goal is to map the entire human genetic code. It has moved much faster than schedule due to advances in computers and the speed at which genes can be mapped.
Such a feat would allow researchers to more easily identify the genetic mutations that lead to such diseases as cystic fibrosis and hopefully offer clues as to how these diseases could be treated or cured.
But the project is not without criticism, with many fearful that Celera, not the U.S. government team, will win the Human Genome mapping race and not provide complete access to their information.
It took ten years to map the code of the E. Coli bacteria, one commonly used in biological research. The first code for a free-living organism was mapped in 1995. The code of the fruit fly, an insect often used in testing, was also recently mapped.
The code of other species is useful because they can be used for experiments that would be impossible to perform on humans. Scientists can create or find a genetic mutation on one of these animals and then track down the gene or genes that cause it. Often animals will have counterpart diseases to ones that occur in humans, and changes in animal genomes will have similar effects on humans.
When the code of the fruit fly was sequenced, for example, researchers discovered many previously unknown counterpart diseases that will aid in finding cures for human diseases.
Broder said that once the human genome is entirely mapped, there will be huge advances in this field of comparative genomics, as large segments of our genetic code are similar to the code of animals.
Broder also said that the mapping of the genome would allow the concept of individualized medicine. Doctors could test for which drugs or treatments patients would have an adverse reaction to and then adjust their treatment accordingly.
As the technology advances, science will move from understanding the genome to better understanding biological functions, Broder said.
Broder also said that the sequencing would hopefully lead to such advances as a cancer vaccine, as well as advances in the identification of diseases, a field he said has not progressed significantly in the last several centuries.
Broder then warned that there were still many issues that the mapping would not solve. Many viruses continually adapt and change their genetic code to become resistant to current treatments.
For example, there are now many places in the world where malaria is immune to most of the available treatments. If the genome of malaria were decoded, though, researchers could examine changes in the code and perhaps gain clues as to how to fight back against the disease.
Broder also warned against the use of the genome to justify eugenics, or race-based superiority or inferiority.
"I believe there is only one human genome," he said.