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Asked by amelia on 14 Nov 2024.
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Hannah Cleary answered on 14 Nov 2024:
The human genome is very complex. There are still many genes and their functions that aren’t fully understood and when we factor in environmental factors and interactions between genetic information, it becomes more complex again. I do think we are getting closer and lots of research is being done in this area. In terms of medical implications, this could significantly help a world of medicines that are more personalised for each individual.
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Brendan Mullane answered on 14 Nov 2024:
I am not a specialist in this area, but I read somewhere that even with brilliant advancements to date, vast amounts of generated genetic data requires sophisticated tools and expertise to interpret. Determining which genetic variations are clinically significant remains a complex task and ongoing research is essential to fully unravel its complexities.
Comments
Cyrille commented on :
I think we won’t fully understand it in the short term. When it was first sequenced many years ago, it was hailed as the holy grail of medicine. However, there are many many more factors influencing health than ‘just’ the genome, for example, your metabolism, environment, nutrition, lifestyle etc. They also operate at different timescales: changes in genes are very slow, but metabolism reacts instantly to, e.g., food. And then those will have feedback on your genome, like by altering gene expression. While we have learned a lot in recent years thanks to advances in genomics, we are still in the early days.