What is genomic medicine?
I thought some of you would find
this article, from the New York Times Magazine, interesting.
It's about Dr. D. Holmes Morton, a doctor practicing "genomic medicine" among the Amish and Mennonites of Pennsylvania. And what, you might ask, is genomic medicine?
I don't think it's giving too much away to explain. After all, the article is a great story in its own right, and I there's enough to admire about Dr. D. Holmes Morton to carry the piece. But for BookTalk, and especially in the light of the discussion we're having over Michael Gazzaniga's "The Ethical Brain", I think "genomic medicine" is worth discussing.
Genomic medicine, as the article implies, is a branch of practicing medicine, as opposed to pure research, which uses genetic analysis and screening not in the hopes of using theoretical cures like gene replacement therapy, but of outlining practical medical advice to patients. The article's discussion of glutaric aciduria 1 serves as an admirable example. Blood tests allow for genetic analysis, allowing Dr. Morton to locate particular genetic strains of deletions associated with heritable diseases. Knowing, at the time of birth or shortly thereafter, that a patient is liable to GA1 makes it possible to treat that patient before the symptoms -- which are neurologically devastating or fatal -- arise. And because brain development begins to slow at the age of two, any practical steps that can be taken to prevent against the infantile crisis state associated with GA1 improves the child's chances of attaining full neurological capability.
So while a neurologist like Gazzaniga is considering the ethics of screening embryos in order to reject those with potential disorders, Morton is using similar technology to treat patients, improving their chances of survival and of living the fullest life available to them. This seems, to me, better reason for excitement over the developing science of genetics.
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