Since the completion of the Human Genome Project a decade ago, much excitement has swirled around the possibility that determining a person’s genetic makeup could help doctors personalize the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of disease. But James P. Evans, a physician and geneticist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, says the promises of genomic medicine have been overblown. He talked with Science News molecular biology writer Tina Hesman Saey about the hope and hype.
Will knowing a person’s genetic makeup make health care better?
There’s lots of excitement about the use of genetics and genomics in medicine, but the promise of that, I think, has been oftentimes misconstrued.
We’ve heard many claims that refining an individual’s risk for a variety of common diseases like heart disease and cancer will lead to better care for them, but there is frankly just no evidence that that is the case.