The fascination with ME
Tonight, in about 1/2 hour, I’m going to take a saliva sample and ship it off to the States.
A company called 23andme is then going to analyze that DNA, and tell me my risks for 118 diseases, my ancestral path and allow me to navigate other people with similar DNA…
This is mainly thanks to Esther Dyson‘s persuasion, who has always been enthusiastic about the service (she’s also any advisor to my Company, Cognitive Match). And, in fact, the moment the service was proposed (which from memory was still a year starting with 19) I knew I’d be signing up at some point. The thing is, it’s at least 50% of what defines ME, it’s my DNA. (Although note that researchers are finding other features of our DNA, including how it is folded, could be just as important - thanks to @christophebacon for that one).
So Bill Moorier’s app (http://abstractnonsense.com/mri/), “Inside my head” caught my eye for the same reason. If you fancy, you can use this app to navigate around Bill’s head, presented in a full set of MRI scans… No, I’m not totally sure either why you would want to see inside Bill’s head – but I wouldn’t mind seeing inside my own. Especially if it was labelled up with facts about brain areas, comparisons with other people’s brains and so on.
That’s only the start, of course. Twin this data with eHRs (electronic health records) which we’ll all be getting access to within 3-5 years (Google Health is already delivering this, and Microsoft and others are working on int), and you have an electronic record of YOU. Then what? Suddenly, you’ll be in control of your health – all in one place, at one time.
And the combination of that data will make some amazing things happen in medicine – your genes, combined with your medical history, your travel plans, what you eat every day… Not only will it enable huge advances in personalized medicine, but connections between your health and your life will pour out of this thing. And ultimately, we will all be a bit healthier.
So, getting 23andme to analyze my DNA, and considering buying the recently buzzed-up FitBit is the first step along that road. I realise many people wouldn’t find all of this healthy, and it might even be more stressful/worrying than not knowing anything. But for now, my curiosity is outweighing all that.
I’ll let you know if it changes once 23andme is done analyzing…
