Your personal genome: Francis Collins

Francis Collins, the outgoing director of the National Human Genome Research Institute, has chosen currently not to get his personal genome scanned  – why ?

If you want a overview of current genome knowledge and personal genome research, take a look at this video. Charlie Rose is interviewing Francis Collins from July 29 2008. Francis Collins is the director of the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) and is stepping down as director as of August 1st.

Load up the video and continue your daily computer work (you don’t have to actually ‘watch’ the video just listen).

Interestingly, Dr. Collins has chosen not to obtain his personal genome profile, even though it would be easy and probably free for him. The reason of why he has not is because he thinks the lifestyle interventions that increase your overall health outcome is dependent on your personal genome profile – but we don’t know which profile will benefit from lifestyle change X. So while he knows there is a great deal of information to be obtained from getting your own personal genome scan he doesn’t think the science has advanced far enough to deliver ‘identifiable actions’ based on the personal information.