| | FEBRUARY 20208By Arindam Haldar, CEO, SRL DiagnosticsAn IIT Kharagpur & IIM Calcutta alumnus, Arindam boasts of having over two decades of cross-industry experience garnered during his stints with companies such as Colgate-Palmolive, General Mills India, Sterlite Technologies, and SRL Diagnostics.Breakthroughs in molecular diagnostics are bringing us close to an era in healthcare, often referred to as `Personalized Medicine', where soon, molecular markers will point towards a per-son's risk of developing a disease, determine whether a person is a carrier of a hereditary condition, screen for diseases that are present but not yet symptomatic, confirm a diagnosis, or monitor how a patient is responding to treatments.The genome comprises all of our deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), which carries our genetic informa-tion. The DNA molecule contains four chemical units, expressed in letters A, T, G and C. Whole Ge-nome Sequencing (WGS) looks at the order of three billion pairs of these letters. There are around 20,000 genes (made of DNA) in ev-ery cell of our body, which act as in-structions to make molecules called proteins, which then determine the structure and functioning of our cells, tissues and organs. Mutation in any one of these genes on their own or in combination with muta-tions in other genes or with environ-mental factors can cause a disease.With access to genetic data sets, as well as technological advances such as Next Generation Sequenc-ing, scientists are getting better at understanding the implications of these genetic variations in various diseases and disorders. These are promising signs, pointing to a new, technology-empowered future. To-day, genetic tests in India can cost anywhere between Rs. 3,000 for something like thalassemia and Rs.1 lakh for whole genome se-quencing (WGS). These tests are expensive as most of the devic-es that are used to perform these THOUGHT LEADERSHIPWILL PREDICTIVE GENOMICS BRING A PATIENT-EMPOWERED FUTURE?
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