George Church, Professor of Genetics, Harvard Medical School

George Church is a Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School. He's also a leading genomic researcher, having been personally responsible for much of the progress already made in developing the technology and methods now being used to reveal the hitherto-secret messages encapsulated in human DNA that largely (but not completely) dictate who we are.

Professor Church spoke today with Etopia Media Medical News Network about his research and about the present and future of individual genomic sequencing.

His commitment to lowering the cost of human gene sequencing is directly related to his interest in hastening the advent of "personalized medicine," in which patients' genomes will be available for the customizing of therapies, vaccines, cancer-fighting agents, and other medical interventions.

Professor Church strongly supports NIH-approved stem cell research and efforts in Massachusetts to respond creatively to California's efforts to take the lead in this field of research.

Stem cell transplants, he says, serve as a means of doing "genetic therapy" or "cell therapy," through which new genes can be added to a patient's genome and body. Such technology, he cautions, is still in "the early days."

Given the benefits of mass public genomic sequencing, the still limited support for this by government, and therefore the need to raise public awareness and generate public support for this policy, Professor Church believes that the emergence of Californians for Universal Voluntary Individual Genomic Sequencing, which is trying to place an initiative on the California ballot that would provide public funding to increase the availability and lower the unit cost of doing individual genomic sequencing, "sounds like a wonderful initiative, very visionary of California to think of such a thing….If the people spoke out like that, it would be a historic moment." He added that "it needs to be phased in carefully with lots of oversight." He also supported competition between Massachusetts and California to see who could pass such an initiative first.

You can listen to everything that Professor Church had to say about these subjects by clicking here.