In little more than a decade we have sequenced the
entire human genome, a goal that in 1990 seemed as far fetched as Kennedy’s
promise to put a man on the moon by the end of the 60s. Now comes the hard
part: figuring out what it all means.
So much has been written about the monumental nature
of this accomplishment that we can expect a bit of a letdown in the coming
year as the world remains, well, pretty much as it was last year. Cancer
won’t be vanquished. Parents won’t read their children’s genetic
profiles on DNA chips. Wonder drugs won’t hit the pharmacy shelves.
Thirty years ago, when Neil Armstrong walked on the
moon, we expected great changes as well, something to match the symbolism of
our first step towards the stars. But that “giant leap for mankind,’ led
not to a 2001-like space odyssey to the moon of Jupiter, but to confusion,
cutbacks, and failures. The
symbolism of today’s genomics revolution is equally rich. We are reading the
book of life and seizing control of our own evolution. Will the consequences
match the rhetoric this time around? I think so. Progress in the life sciences
is poised to affect our lives as profoundly as the space program affected our
imaginations.
A rough draft of the human genome is an arbitrary
milestone, but it is as good a point as any to mark the arrival of a new era
in human history. And make no mistake about it, this is precisely what is
arriving. Space is not our
natural realm, but genetics lies at our core. What emerges as we unravel the
workings of our biology will affect our lives. Imagine what it
would mean to understand and prevent Alzheimer’s, to tailor drugs to our
individual genetic constitutions, to unravel aging and learn to retard key
aspects of it. And these are only a beginning, think of the agonizing choices
we will face when we can know the genetics of an embryo and foretell much
about that potential child-to-be.
Such possibilities are full of promise, but somehow
troubling too. Will we have the wisdom to handle them? Some say we should not
be playing God; but we already do each time we dam a river, fly in an
airplane, or transplant an organ. We are unraveling our biology not out of
idle curiosity, but to use the knowledge to improve our lives. It might seem
prudent to slow down until we can determine our safest path. But the only way
to gain the necessary wisdom may well be to push ahead as best we can and
learn from whatever mistakes we make. Caution too carries great risks. In
2010, over a million of us in this country will learn we have cancer. No one
can say what treatments will arrive by then, but needless delay will sentence
many to early death.
It is our privilege to be alive today to witness the
deciphering of biology. Future
generations will point back to this moment. The practical spinoffs of the
Human Genome Project will not be instantaneous, but today’s trickle of
applications will soon be a torrent. There
will be no going back. We will modify the genetics of our foods, we will
explore our genes, and eventually we will even modify ourselves. Humanity is
growing beyond its childhood, and the challenge for us and our children will
not be to block our newfound powers, but to learn to use them responsibly and
wisely.