What if I told you
I could read your DNA, your genetic makeup, your "Book of Life?"
Are you interested?
I can give you a vast amount of information about yourself
that will help you live longer and better lives.
Isn't that wonderful?
Do you want to?
You don't want to?
You are not sure?
Well, you're probably right.
It's complex.
Let me explain.
We are reaching a time
when more and more people will have easy access to their DNA.
Just about 15 years ago,
it cost the equivalent of four jumbo jet airplanes
to read the sequence of one human DNA from beginning to end.
Today, it costs around a bicycle to read the DNA.
And it takes about the time to read your DNA
the same time it'll take you to ride your bicycle from home to work and back.
Before you know it,
it's going to cost like a cup of coffee,
and it'll take the time to read your DNA
the same time it'll take you to drink the coffee.
Isn't that amazing?
We are reaching a time which we call "DNA of Everything."
We will be able to read the DNA of everything around us.
This is a new layer of information we have never seen before.
For example, you'll be able to read the food you're eating
in order to understand what it contains and what it's composed of.
I could read your DNA and figure out
what you contain and what you're composed of.
You could use that to minimize injuries and diseases.
For example, imagine you want to run a marathon,
and besides the physiological test,
what if I told you that I could look at your genes and tell you
whether your body can stand up to this extreme stress?
Wouldn't you want to know that?
You can then take preventative measures,
start treatment,
or look at your genes and decide whether you want to understand them or not.
You can change your lifestyle.
You can change the way you live
in order to minimize the risks for these diseases.
Not only healthy individuals can benefit from reading their DNA,
reading your DNA can also assist in solving complex medical puzzles.
A few years ago,
Nicholas Volker from Wisconsin suffered from an inflamed intestine.
He underwent more than 150 operations in the first four years of his life.
His doctors didn't know what the cause of his sufferings is,
but they decided that they wanted to test a new technology,
an unproven technology.
This technology is DNA sequencing.
They were able to locate the exact mutation on his DNA,
the change of his DNA that probably explained
much of his suffering and his medical condition.
And it also dictated a treatment: bone marrow transplantation.
A few weeks later, Nic was out of the hospital.
It was certain that DNA sequencing saved Nic's life
At Tel Aviv University, the team that I lead,
the genomic intelligence team,
has been reading and sequencing hundreds of individuals in the past few years.
We scanned their DNA and we tried to look for their change,
the mutation that leads to many of their severe conditions.
They come to us with their physicians,
and we look at their DNA,
and we identify their exact mutation that leads to their medical condition.
We were able to find many of these novel mutations,
new mutations that explain much of their suffering.
This is the first critical step in understanding what leads to their disease.
And it's also a critical step in trying to alleviate their suffering.
Some of them also lead to cure or treatment for these patients.
So, reading your DNA is wonderful.
It's terrific.
We should all read our DNA.
OK, who's coming up first?
Many people asked me if I have read my own DNA.
And the truth is ... No.
I haven't.
Why?
It's complex.
I have a game I play with my children.
We look up at the sky, and we point at one of the clouds,
and then we try to figure out what form the cloud takes.
Sometimes we see familiar faces;
other times we see dragons or princesses.
However, very rarely, we see the same image
even if we look at the same cloud.
When I go back to the lab, and I look at genetic information,
sometimes I feel like I'm playing the same guessing game
I just played with my children.
Sometimes, it looks like a dragon,
and other times, it looks like a princess.
It doesn't have a definite structure.
What I mean is that even if I find the mutation,
I can't always say if it's good or bad.
The answer is not straightforward,
and sometimes it leads to confusion and to greater uncertainty.
Let's say, you came to me, and you wanted to look at your genes.
We are looking at the genomic cloud,
and we are trying to define this cloud.
If I look at your DNA, while scanning for genes to see
whether your body can stand up to the extreme stress,
maybe I can also see genes
that are involved in early cancer development,
or Alzheimer's disease,
or Parkinson's disease.
Now, would you want to know that?
The most challenging concern when reading your DNA
is once you read it, you can't go back.
You can't erase this information.
You can't unlearn.
That's scary.
What if this information would get out there?
It could be used against you.
12 year-old Colman was expelled from school in Palo Alto, California
because he carried a mutation that increased his risk for infections
that jeopardized other children at school.
He wasn't even sick.
He was just carrying the mutation.
Would we want to start testing our politicians to see
whether they'll suffer from a devastating disease during their service period -
you know, it might affect their decision making.
Will we start selecting our lifetime partners based on DNA,
and checking their loyalty in the DNA before we get married?
And after we get married, what about the next generation?
We all want perfect babies.
What if the parents of this child were told
that their child will eventually suffer from ALS?
Or this child - if his parents were told
that he will suffer from severe hearing loss?
Or what about this sweet child -
if his parents were told that at the age of 60
he will suffer from Parkinson-like symptoms?
What would they have done?
What would the world look like without these and many other children?
Will we shape our society based on DNA sequencing?
It has already begun.
Abortions are on the rise in the past few years
in parallel to advance in DNA sequencing technologies.
Maybe - maybe if we gradually look at the DNA,
and not all at once,
it would be easier to digest this information.
In the lab, we call it responsible genomics:
meaning giving the right person the needed information at the right time,
whether it be prenatal diagnosis,
or predisposition to diabetes,
or cardiovascular complication.
We are scanning the DNA and dividing it to discreet units,
and evaluating the private parts and the open parts.
We are evaluating the risks versus the benefits of exposing your DNA.
We are ranking it, so people can accept their DNA more readily.
After we address these concerns,
I think I will be ready to read my DNA.
Reading your DNA gives you great knowledge about yourself.
Knowledge leads to power.
And we all know that with great power comes great responsibility.
It will not take long before someone knocks on your door
and asks you whether you want to read your DNA.
What will you say?
Thank you.
(Applause)