Experts clash over promise of genomic era

This week Steve Jones, Professor of Genetics at University College London, called for an overhaul of the approach to genetic research which, since the completion of the Human Genome Project in 2003, has led to the investment of hundreds of millions of pounds of charity and taxpayers' money in the hope that new treatments and cures for a host of diseases will follow. Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Professor Jones called the promise of genetic research a 'false dawn' and said that there is 'too much optimism' that it will lead to benefits for mankind.

'Many geneticists now think that the constant pressure to sample thousands and thousands more people for a myriad of unknown genes that have a tiny effect may be misplaced. Instead, we would be better off abandoning the scattergun approach, and reading off the entire three thousand million DNA letters of a much smaller number of individuals, healthy and unhealthy, to see in detail what might have gone wrong,' he wrote.

Several commentators spoke out to defend genetic research, among them Sir Mark Walport, director of the Wellcome Trust, the charity giant criticised in Professor Jones' commentary.

In a letter to the Daily Telegraph he claimed genetic research has led to an 'extraordinary flowering of knowledge', saying: 'It is only five years since the completed sequence of the human genome was announced. Since then, we have seen the discovery of literally hundreds of genetic factors associated with human variation in health and disease'.

Professor Marcus Pembrey, Chair of the Progress Educational Trust, the charity that publishes BioNews, was among several to respond to Professor Jones' commentary. 'There is nothing wrong with genetic research and it had some breakthroughs but it has not turned out to be the panacea that it was first hoped,' he said, affirming that there were still significant gains to be had from the study of the often complex interactions between human genes and the environment with a view to revealing strategies for the prevention of disease.

Professor Peter Donnelly, director of the Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium, which funds a number of genetic studies, said that given the huge complexity of the human genome, it was unsurprising that genetic 'cures' had yet to be found, but that progress is being made. 'The pace of genetic findings is changing at an immense rate and we are now able to analyse human variation in health and disease on a scale unimaginable even just a few years ago. It may be years - decades, even - before this knowledge is translated into new treatments, but such research is essential if we are to make progress.'