What does personalized medicine mean in the era of inexpensive gene sequencing? What can we make of our own personal genetic variation? We will explore these ideas in next Tuesday’s class, with Katina Krasnec’s guest lecture.

Here is the essay question for next week:

Do you think personalized medicine and genome sequencing is the way of the future? What are the risks and benefits of having this genetic information? How should patients and medical professionals use personal genomic data in light of privacy concerns and potential treatments?

1) Galvani and Novembre. The evolutionary history of the CCR5 Δ32 HIV-resistance mutation. Microbes and Infection (2005) vol. 7 (2) pp. 302-309 Microbes and Infection 2005 Galvani

2) Vargas et al. Pros and cons of a missing chemokine receptor—Comments on “Is the European spatial distribution of the HIV-1-resistant CCR5-Δ32 allele formed by a breakdown of the pathocenosis due to the historical Roman expansion?” by Eric Faure and Manuela Royer-Carenzi (2008). INFECTION, GENETICS AND EVOLUTION (2009) vol. 9 (4) pp. 387-389 INFECTION GENETICS AND EVOLUTION 2009 Vargas

3) Glass. CCR5 deficiency increases risk of symptomatic West Nile virus infection. Journal of Experimental Medicine (2006) vol. 203 (1) pp. 35-40 Journal of Experimental Medicine 2006 Glass

4) Caulfield et al. Reflections on the Cost of “Low-Cost” Whole Genome Sequencing: Framing the Health Policy Debate. Plos Biol (2013) vol. 11 (11) pp. e1001699  Plos Biol 2013 Caulfield
5) The man who had AIDS and now does not

6) Atlantic article

7) Big data DNA

Optional extra:8) Optional Reading Allers et al. Evidence for the cure of HIV infection by CCR5 32/ 32 stem cell transplantation. Blood (2011) vol. 117 (10) pp. 2791-2799 Blood 2011 Allers

and 9) NYT

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Joe Alcock

Emergency Physician, Educator, Researcher, interested in the microbiome, evolution, and medicine