BOOK REVIEW: The Genome Odyssey: The Promise of Precision Medicine to Define, Detect, and Defeat Disease by Euan Angus Ashley @celadonbooks #thegenomeodyssey

In The Genome Odyssey, Dr. Euan Ashley, Stanford professor of medicine and genetics, brings the breakthroughs of precision medicine to vivid life through the real diagnostic journeys of his patients and the tireless efforts of his fellow doctors and scientists as they hunt to prevent, predict, and beat disease.

Since the Human Genome Project was completed in 2003, the price of genome sequencing has dropped at a staggering rate. It’s as if the price of a Ferrari went from $350,000 to a mere forty cents. Through breakthroughs made by Dr. Ashley’s team at Stanford and other dedicated groups around the world, analyzing the human genome has decreased from a heroic multibillion dollar effort to a single clinical test costing less than $1,000.

For the first time we have within our grasp the ability to predict our genetic future, to diagnose and prevent disease before it begins, and to decode what it really means to be human.

In The Genome Odyssey, Dr. Ashley details the medicine behind genome sequencing with clarity and accessibility. More than that, with passion for his subject and compassion for his patients, he introduces readers to the dynamic group of researchers and doctor detectives who hunt for answers, and to the pioneering patients who open up their lives to the medical community during their search for diagnoses and cures.

He describes how he led the team that was the first to analyze and interpret a complete human genome, how they broke genome speed records to diagnose and treat a newborn baby girl whose heart stopped five times on the first day of her life, and how they found a boy with tumors growing inside his heart and traced the cause to a missing piece of his genome.

These patients inspire Dr. Ashley and his team as they work to expand the boundaries of our medical capabilities and to envision a future where genome sequencing is available for all, where medicine can be tailored to treat specific diseases and to decode pathogens like viruses at the genomic level, and where our medical system as we know it has been completely revolutionized.

Reflection

If there is one thing this book made me reflect on, it’s the importance of every single scientific discovery, no matter how long it takes for the next big step to come to fruition. The discovery of the genetic code happened in the 1950s, and then in the 1980s we had break throughs in genetic engineering. Another few decades later and we made strides in sequencing the human genome. When I think about all of the brilliant scientific minds who contributed to where we are today, and where we will be in the future, I’m humbled. It takes a high degree of intelligence, of course. But more than that, it takes people who are intellectually curious, who are ok to try and fail and try again, and who hope that their work carries on long past themselves.

In The Genome Odyssey, Dr. Ashley begins with the basics and describes the science behind the genome, as well as making the case for where science is now and where we might be heading in terms of the breadth of impact this research is primed to have. One thing that has changed since the early years of human genome sequencing is the accessibility and cost of sequencing an individual genome, which he compares to a similar cost as other basic tests doctors order for their patients all the time.

Gentetic sequencing is more than just understanding the composition of each gene, it also is a process of understanding what each gene does. What this means is that in the future, we may be able to target interventions based on specific genetic abnormalities. With highlights on different scientists and agencies that have made break throughs or targeted specific questions to answer, Dr. Ashley walks us through where genetic sequencing is and where it is going.

I will say that though this was explained at an approachable level, this book is full of heavy scientific information. I was able to follow along, but this wasn’t a read-in-one-weekend sort of book. But for those curious and passionate about science and understanding the link between genetic sequencing and scientific break throughs that impact the human race, this is a fascinating book that provides a lot of hope for the future.

Thank you to Celadon Books for my copy. Opinions are my own.