Everyday genomics is coming, ready or not
IT IS 2020. You are watching the latest episode of CSI Miami. Horatio and the team have a murder to solve. The murderer has conveniently left a DNA sample behind. In fact, since a single strand of the molecule can now be detected and analysed, he could hardly avoid having done so. Not so conveniently, he is not on the database—wishy-washy civil libertarians having prohibited the collection of DNA records about the unconvicted.
Never mind. Horatio pops the sample in a state-of-the-art sequencing machine and out comes a picture of what the suspect looks like—or, rather, a series of pictures of his likely appearance at five-year intervals from age 15 to age 50. Cross-reference these with Florida’s driving-licence database, and the team has its man. …