Question: Would you try to find out the DNA genome of a newborn child?

Before you answer, let me tell you about Alexis and Noah, twins diagnosed at age two with cerebral palsy – at least that’s what their doctors thought.

Their mother, however, refused to accept their opinion. Over the next three years, she did her own research which led doctors to change the diagnosis to DRD – Dopa-Responsive Dystonia. So they prescribed L-dopa, the same drug used for Parkinson’s disease. This miraculously stopped the twins’ limbs from twisting.

But only for a few years.

Fortunately, their father worked for a biotech company that made DNA sequencing machines and he then turned to a Baylor team of geneticists. To search for a defective gene, they ended up sequencing the genomes of the twins, an unaffected sibling and both parents.

The Baylor team discovered that the twins had not one but two mutated genes: one gene controlls the synthesis of dopamine and responds to L-dopa; the other gene controlls serotonin and responds to 5-hydroxytryptophan. So then they prescribed both L-dopa and  5-hydroxytryptophan. Within two weeks the twins improved in their school work and Alexis began competing in sports again. She and Noah are now poster children at Baylor College of Medicine.

But DNA sequencing does not come cheap – doing the five genomes cost $30,000 and interpreting them an added $40,000. However, some clinics now claim they can do it for $4,998.

So hang in there. By the time you get around to sequencing your loved one’s genome, hopefully the cost will have dropped much more.

Soon we may be able to stop more diseases dead in their tracks and not just live longer but better