

Genomics - The new biological science, a decade after human-genome project - joeyespo
http://www.economist.com/node/16349358?story_id=16349358

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bhickey
The Broad is an amazing place, and I'm very grateful for my time there. The
folks there simply do remarkable work.

Nevertheless, I'm ambivalent about the size of the grants doled out to the
senior faculty there. I've heard post-docs and junior faculty express concerns
that it's a poor allocation of resources. For one $25m grant issued to a
senior faculty member, you could fund 50 junior faculty for years. If
diversification is the only free lunch in finance, why should science be any
different?

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davi
I think the idea is that different categories of science might occur at
different scales of funding.

50 junior faculty will likely do 50 safe-ish projects which will lead to
tenure. 1 senior faculty with 25 million dollars might do something
qualitatively different: ambitious, risky, long-term. Or might not, no
guarantee. But I think it's a valid exploration of parameter space.

The goal is to make great science happen, not fund the maximum number of
scientists.

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bhickey
The particular example I had in mind had an 18-month time line -- not exactly
long term.

I agree with your point about goals. Throw fifty-projects worth of money at
George Church and you'll get one hundred and five ambitious, high risk/reward
projects.

(Hey fellow alum! Class of '08 here.)

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throwaway32
this technology is very cool, and has a lot of future promise for treating
illness and detecting disorders before they manifest themselves.

One thing i an extremely concerned about is what other uses this kind of data
will be put to, is your genetic data one National Security Letter away from
being put in a government DNA database? I'm also certain that insurance
companies would really like to get their hands on this kind of data/analysis.
What about certain kinds of jobs, will you be required to submit a genetic
profile to prove you can preform your duties?

I think a situation like Gattaca[1] is not too far off if we dont tightly
control who is allowed access to this kind of information.

[1]<https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Gattaca>

e: corrected "gattica" typo

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surrealize
We've started to address some of these issues with GINA (the Genetic
Information Nondiscrimination Act) which prevents insurers and employers from
discriminating on the basis of genetic information.

Time will tell if it's enough; we'll probably have some more legislation once
the technology becomes more widespread.

