P
eople stared across the vastness of the sea for ages before someone built a boat. And how many more years was it before a sailor dared venture out of sight of land? In broad terms, the sea never changed. But as technology met curiosity and curiosity eclipsed fear—when the boat got built and the sailor sailed—our understanding of the sea changed, and that understanding affected everything we thought we knew about our world. Similarly, the scientific community has been aware of DNA for more than a century, but it wasn’t until the human genome was decoded that we could begin to consider exploring DNA’s true possibilities. One of the people who first sequenced that code of life is J. Craig Venter, Ph.D. and one of the possibilities he’d like you to consider is that you don’t know much about your body, not much at all—but you could, and right now. Health care long has been reactive, not proactive— something hurts, you go to the doctor—and so the idea of utilizing DNA and other testing to anticipate and to address health concerns before they become problems might sound like the stuff of science fiction, but it’s not. Just over a year ago, Venter launched the Health Nucleus, a project in San Diego that uses cutting-edge genomics paired with advanced testing and machine learning to do just that. More than an esoteric research endeavor (though it’s that as well), the Health Nucleus is a consumer health experience that, with no hint of exaggeration, could save your life. You go to the firm’s high tech headquarters in California, your DNA is analyzed, your personal health history is examined, a series of other tests is performed, and the result is a deep and complete picture of your health that can be used to address and to curtail potential health problems. This genomics-based approach is undeniable, it’s effective, and eventually it’s going to change everything about health care.
“The definition of a ‘healthy’ person is something out of the Middle Ages,” Dr. Venter says, speaking in his office in San Diego. “If you apparently don’t have disease and you feel okay, you’re deemed healthy in this world and therefore there’s no reason for you to get MRIs or to go to the hospital or do anything. You’re supposed to wait until you’re no longer healthy—you have extreme pain from your cancer metastasizing to your bones for example—to go and get help. Our goal is to detect things early before people even know that they have anything, when they’re more actionable.” In 2013 Dr. Venter launched Human Longevity, Inc., with co-founders Peter Diamandis and Robert Hariri. This company has built the world’s most comprehensive database of human genomic and phenotypic information (all the physical trails and features that make each of us, us). HLI then uses that information to detect and potentially fight diseases associated with aging. The Health Nucleus is a consumer arm of that, if you will, an immediate application of the science, and it’s already making a big impact. The price tag for the Health Nucleus is $25,000 which enables a client to partake in a full day of testing that includes the complete genome and other omic measures such as microbiome, along with clinical tests such as MRI, CT Scans and DEXA bone and body density screening. HLI’s team of clinicians, genetic counselors, and computing specialists then review and analyze all your results. It’s not inexpensive, but consider what the cost could save you: “About 30 to 40 percent of people that go through the Health Nucleus, we’re finding significant medical issues that they were mostly unaware of,” Venter says. “Things like brain aneurysms or aortas that could pop or different types of cancers that are in early stages, significant heart disease, etc. So people come in here healthy and they leave sick, which isn’t a great marketing slogan, but the good thing is they don’t remain sick for long.”
SPRING 2017
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