A team of researchers at Yale recently used DNA sequencing to diagnose a 5 month old patient.
He was suspected of having Bartter syndrome, a kidney problem that causes dehydration. The team sequenced the protein-coded portion of his dna, and found that he didn't have Bartter, but a mutation in his kidney that caused similar symptoms. The protein coded part of DNA is only 1% of all DNA, but it causes a large portion of genetic disorders and diseases.
This could change medicine forever. Doctors don't have to fit together a puzzle of symptoms and tests to guess at a disease. Instead, they can almost literally take a picture of the patient's DNA and know for sure what's wrong with them. Unfortunately, not all diseases can be found in DNA, only some of the genetic ones. Although limited, this has a lot of potential as well.
This article impressed me, I didn't know it was practical or eve possible to use DNA to diagnose patients. I'm interested to see how this will be implemented into medicine, and how far it could go. They also saved a lot of money by just analyzing the protein parts, which could help a lot of people.
This could change medicine forever. Doctors don't have to fit together a puzzle of symptoms and tests to guess at a disease. Instead, they can almost literally take a picture of the patient's DNA and know for sure what's wrong with them. Unfortunately, not all diseases can be found in DNA, only some of the genetic ones. Although limited, this has a lot of potential as well.
This article impressed me, I didn't know it was practical or eve possible to use DNA to diagnose patients. I'm interested to see how this will be implemented into medicine, and how far it could go. They also saved a lot of money by just analyzing the protein parts, which could help a lot of people.
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