By Jack Uldrich
Cross-posted from www.jumpthecurve.net
A few months back, I wrote an article entitled “The Coming Health Care
Revolution” in which I discussed the startling advances in the
field of genomics. To provide readers a better sense of how fast
things are happening, I’d like to highlight the news just from
today. 
I began my morning by reading this article discussing how researchers in Georgia
believe they have identified a gene which plays a significant role
in causing Alzheimer’s. Next, I stumbled across this BBC report reviewing how smoking causes genetic
changes which limit the production of a protein believed to be
helpful in preventing lung cancer. Finally, there was this report
on Physorg discussing how the gene –
GLUT2 – might be linked to obesity.
(cont.)
It is, of course, too early to discern the true implications of
all of these findings but the signs are promising and suggest that
in the not-too-distant future society will develop more effective
means of both preventing and treating some of today’s leading
health care problems, including Alzheimer’s, lung cancer and
obesity.
All in all the progress isn’t bad day’s work; and the future,
I’d argue, is even more promising due to the accelerating pace of
change in the field of genomics. (To this point, last week
researchers at the University of Oklahoma found a gene they believe plays a role in
breast, pancreas, colon, ovarian and prostate cancer.)
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