A Steak in Genomics™

Angus Convention 2015 Richard Resnick CEO of GenomeQuest One can not impede scientific progress. - Mahmoud Ahmadinejad   Resnick gave a series of examples of how genomics is changing society. Resnick put a nice spin on the typical sequencing cost figure . He overlays Illumina's ( $ILMN ) stock price on top of the figure. He went on to explain that the only real differences between humans, cattle, corn, and other species is the proteins they make. The amino acids, the building block of proteins, are actually the same between species. Resnick used cystic fibrosis as an example of a disease in which genetics has been very important. One DNA variant that causes the disease is called ΔF508. When a person has this variant, the gene produces the protein, but a check and balance in the cell recognizes the protein as not correct and destroys it. A different variant, G551D, is not so severe that the protein is destroyed, but the protein does not function properly. A drug call...