The chosen genes : Jews, genetics, and the future of ethnic medicine

All humans have certain genes that cause or predispose them to various diseases. In the ideal medical future, scientists will have hyperfast gene analyzers able to sequence anyone's DNA in a matter of minutes. In that future, a patient could have his entire sequence of DNA screened for mutations that cause or predispose him to disease, and health care would be truly individualized to fit the genetic profile of each patient. But science isn't yet able to make this future a reality; DNA sequencing remains too time-consuming and expensive to allow for such completely individualized medicine. In the meantime, scientists have discovered a useful shortcut: race and ethnicity. Many genes vary across racial and ethnic lines. Geography is linked to genetic variation, and people who have the same geographic ancestry are more likely, on average, to be genetically similar than people who do not. Although there is no gene for "race" or "ethnicity," many genes do occur in different ethnic groups at different frequencies. This means that doctors can use a patient's race or ethnicity - indicators of geographic ancestry - to make inferences about his genes, including his likelihood of developing specific diseases.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Graduate Program in Science Writing

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2006

Author dc:creator

• Anthes, Emily Kennedy

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Alan Lightman.

• Graduate Program in Science Writing.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/39446

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/39446