Scientists predict better diagnoses and new treatments for nearly every human ailment.
Instead of poisoning a cancer patient with chemotherapy, doctors might simply switch on the genes inside tumor cells that tell them it is time to die. Instead of giving clotting factors to hemophiliacs, doctors might fix a patient's flawed genes as though changing a broken gasket on a car. It will range from a better understanding of basic biology to new diagnostic tests for the major health problems to new cures for disease. The genome is a map of the cell's inner workings, of the chemicals that tell it how to behave. This map may one day allow researchers to figure out how cells work and how they can be altered to prevent and treat illness.