M e d i c i n e A ve 2 benefits is essential. The euphoria about individualized or personalized medical care faces practical problems. These problems are due to marked variation not just in individual genetic background, but also, very importantly, in diet, metabolism, personal behaviors (such as smoking, alcohol use, physical activity, and sexual activity), environmental, chemical and microbial exposures, co-existing medical conditions, and the use of pharmaceuticals and nutraceuticals. Such variation will make many proposed genetic tests insufficiently specific and sensitive to be useful, unless the information about genetic variation can be coupled with information about these other, nongenetic variables.3The promise of such discoveries has led some entrepreneurs to offer genotyping services direct to consumers—some say prematurely—prompting legislative calls for consumer protections. The regulatory and legal challenges involved in communicating such matters are daunting. Multidisciplinary Research True multidisciplinary/interdisciplinary project teams and large-scale projects are essential for certain kinds of life science research goals. The Human Genome Project is a notable example. The development of sequencing and synthesizing technologies and machines, automation with robots, and large-scale computation made all the difference in the timetable, and even the feasibility of any timetable. The interface between these teams and multidisciplinary communications and regulatory teams also is likely to become much more complex. Multidisciplinary organizations in every sector present particular challenges, as each discipline has its own "rules of engagement." Excellent cross-disciplinary training is not easy. In the academic community with 34
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDMwNDAx