Google and autism advocacy and research organization Autism Speaks have announced a partnership to collect and analyze the DNA of 10,000 people with autism. From the article in the Wall Street Journal: “One of the biggest insights gleaned from genetic research in autism so far is that there isn’t just one form of autism, but many. Whole-genome sequencing, which allows scientists to look at every single letter—known as a base pair or nucleotide—in a person’s DNA should provide “increased resolution of understanding what autism is,” says Robert Ring, chief science officer at Autism Speaks.”
For more information: “Genes in the Cloud: Google Steps into Autism Research“, by Shirley S. Wang, June 9th 2014, Wall Street Journal.
Interested in teaching about personalized medicine and genome sequencing in your classroom? Check out our lesson plan, “Personalized Medicine.”
