Future possibilities
"The ever quickening advances of science made possible by the success of the Human Genome Project will also soon let us see the essences of mental disease. Only after we understand them at the genetic level can we rationally seek out appropriate therapies for such illnesses as schizophrenia and bipolar disease."
-James D. Watson
Profound comprehensions of the diseases processed at the level of molecular biology may determine advanced therapeutic methods. The sequencing of the Human genome provides an unprecedented opportunity to progress in human health and disease. It gives us a chance to explore and understand the non-genetic factors that may affect the disease, and eventually apply this perception to the hindrance, identification and cure of the disease. Developing innovative strategies to identify gene variants also provides professionals with a means to create resistance to disease and allow people to remain in good health.
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"In the next five to seven years, we should identify the genetic susceptibility factors for virtually all common diseases — cancer, diabetes, heart disease, the major mental illnesses — on down that list. Out of that will come the ability to make predictions about who’s at risk and, in many instances, that itself can be extremely helpful by allowing you to take advantage of surveillance, so that you are diagnosed early before a real problem arises. In the longer term — perhaps ten or 15 years — this will lead to a new generation of therapies that is going to be much more successful and effectively targeted towards the basic problem than what we have now.......I think in another 20, 25 years, we should be able to prevent or cure most cases of cancer, of diabetes, of heart diseases, of multiple sclerosis, of asthma. Not to say that we will all live forever. The death rate will still be one per person. Something will get us, I suppose. But the current situation where far too many people are stricken with illnesses while still young or in the prime of life will be much improved by this."
-Francis Collins, at interview with Bob Abernethy
-Francis Collins, at interview with Bob Abernethy