My Beautiful Genome

Title: My Beautiful Genome – Exposing Our Genetic Future, One Quirk at a Time

Author: Lone Frank

Publisher: Oneworld, 2011 (First published 2010)

ISBN: 978-1-85168-833-3

Pages: 313

Lone Frank is a distinguished science writer in Denmark and a journalist with a doctoral degree in neurobiology to boot. She has widely written in scientific journals and is the author of books like The Neurotourist and Mindfield. The present title is also one among the author’s most favorite genre. It is a summary of the field as it exists in developed countries, the First World, so to say, and discusses about implications of what researchers and industrialists do on the genome, the genetic sequence that makes one different from another. With technology getting cheaper to sequence and analyze genes, the number of applications to which the data is put to use has skyrocketed. It came into being by identifying susceptibilities to specific heritable diseases like breast cancer and depressive disorder, but soon developed into racial profiling, identifying tendencies toward behavioral disorders and at last towards genetic matchmaking that surreptitiously inches towards neo-eugenics. Frank discusses all these issues with the detachment of a journalist, at the same time submitting her own genetic material as input to each of the technologies she gives an account of. She has travelled widely as part of this book’s preparation, as attested by the author’s presence in seminars, workshops, research establishments and entrepreneurs. The greatest virtue of the book is that it doesn’t pass judgment on the cutting edge technologies like selectively aborting fetuses that show symptoms of mutations in order to ensure a healthy new generation. She adopts a neutral, open attitude towards this vexed issue and allows the reader to form his own conclusions, and relegates herself into the background after providing him with all the relevant data on this issue.

People know the details of their ancestors generally only up to three generations into the past. Beyond that, ordinary people have no way of knowing anything. But the curiosity still prevailed. Many of us have wondered at one time or another about the origin and descent of our ancestors through the misty paths of historical time. And, to where did our ancestors belong to, about 100 generations ago? Such questions were unanswerable hardly a few decades ago, but no longer so, thanks to the development of genetic profiling that was one of the offshoots of genetic engineering that began at the discovery of DNA’s double helix architecture by James Watson and Francis Crick in 1963. Cataloguing of genes and polymorphisms have enabled us to probe into the distant past in order to throw light upon our racial heritage and geographical roots from which our forefathers began their journey through time. Frank describes her experience at firsthand of such tests offered by commercial enterprises in many parts of the world. There is not much point in deducing that one’s forebears originated from an outpost of civilization in central Asia or that our genome contains special features that are exhibited by specific tribes towards whom we no longer feel an affinity to. But still, such information more than matters to a few individuals in our society.

An area that is attracting wide public attention is the screening for diseases that show heritability. Depression, schizophrenia and breast cancer are some of these, for which strong correlation between genes and the disease have been established. But this presents a dilemma. What if the disease is not preventable, say Alzheimer’s disease? The foreknowledge that it is written in your genes that you are predisposed towards the disease only makes you more stressful – at least that is what is observed commonly. And then there is the issue of changes in consensus. A gene may be thought to be harmful today, but after thorough studies, it may turn out to be innocuous. In such cases, a report issued in a year with warnings against specific maladies may prove to be utterly erroneous the next year. Then there is the added trouble with percentages of likelihood. Genetic testing is not like a clinical examination such as blood tests. There, the results are pretty final and if it says you are afflicted with something, you probably are. But the study of relevant genes only tell you a statistical likelihood that you are more prone to a particular condition by a specific percentage, than the normal population. But the public is not generally aware of finer nuances of the figures and assume that they already posses the disease. No wonder genetic testing for heritable diseases is strictly controlled by law in some countries. A person is not allowed to simply walk in to a genetic lab and have his or her genome tested. The author expresses dissent about this and comes to the consensus that an individual should be allowed to have knowledge of genetic quirks that he harbors in his genes. A enlightening discussion on the interpretation of percentages connected with diseases may be obtained from the book, The Tiger That Isn’t, reviewed earlier in this blog.

The latter half of the book is a bit terse and does not follow the humorous streak observed in the former. One reason might be that Frank has devoted this portion to explain the cutting edge research going on this area. She is eager to participate in study projects in the field and don’t hesitate to share the results with the readers, overlooking issues like privacy. An interesting area of research is that of epigenetics, the study of changes in the genome during the life of an individual. Though we have the same DNA in our liver and brain, only those genes specific to cleanup are activated in the liver, and only those for communication of neural signals are turned on in the brain. The blocking of specific portions is done by affixing chains of methyl groups at appropriate points in the DNA. This is a natural and essential process, but sometimes, exigencies in upbringing like stressful childhood and abuse may cause modifications in genome, and gene expression is affected. This is proved in experiments with animals, but human trials are obviously not feasible as at present. However, this is discernible in the development of twins. Their genome is alike when they are children, but as they grow up, differences become more and more noticeable. This is due to changes occurring to their genome due to the environment in which they live. This is a classic dilemma of nature verses nurture, the genes that is in your nature, and the behavioral peculiarities cultivated as part of your nurturing program. What we learn from the author’s experience is that a lot of research is being done on this front, and by the year 2020, application of medicine would be based on genetic tests on the patient, to ascertain that the drug is beneficial to him.

The final section of the book deals with a new trend in the western world where people consult genetic matchmakers before entering a relationship and screen for mutational deficiencies in offspring which are conceived in vitro. Ethical issues are connected with this and may be thought of as a new incarnation of eugenics, the notorious branch of knowledge that took birth a century ago in Europe and postulated to limit the right of having children only to those genetically perfect, or in other words, the Whites. However, we don’t need to bring in old accusations anew against this nascent technology as the social milieu has changed beyond recognition in the last century and no race would presumably be allowed to enforce its will on dissenting others. In this light, it might be foolish not to take advantage of the benefits offered by the technology and bring up a new generation free of avoidable genetic disorders.

The book’s narration is free flowing and the experience enjoyable, particularly during the first half. Frank gatecrashes into genetic labs, presenting her genome for analysis and forms the basis of subsequent discussion. This candid approach helps to keep the personal touch between the author and her readers. By the time one completes the book, not only has he grasped a snapshot of what is brewing in the genetic cauldron, but has obtained a firsthand impression of the author’s behavioral traits and how it is linked to genes and her own upbringing. The book contains a good index and notes section, but a section on further reading is sorely missing.

The book is recommended.

Rating: 3 Star