A Genetic Revolution Is Coming — And We Need To Be Prepared

“Accurate information about genetics needs to be widely available and more routinely taught.”

Biology is becoming digital, and the democratisation of biotechnologies is one of the most transformative trends of our current era. This article highlights some well-founded fears that the current lack of knowledge about biology as technology can lead to misunderstandings and mistakes.

Scientists are getting increasingly better at mapping and understanding genomes. The mapping of the human genome did not lead to an instant revolution — rather it made us aware of how limited our understanding still is. Being able to locate specific differences in genomes is just a part of understanding how these variants produce the traits we see.

The use of genetic data is increasing across diverse industries and completely new applications are regularly brought to light. This article explains why genome data isn’t always reliable and gives several examples of cases where the data wasn’t reliable at all.

“My own research has shown that even the well-educated amongst us have poor genetic knowledge.” The biotech revolution is coming — and we need to be educated to be able to make use of the knowledge as safely and effectively as possible.