My Beautiful Genome by Lone Frank
Lone Frank is curious about the fledgling genomics industry. And so she should be – the phenomenon of companies pouncing on a particular field of science ought to be scrutinised. If a rash of start-ups spread across the world offering new technologies based on the faster-than-light neutrino, I would hope that someone takes a look at exactly how they are using science to make money. You’d certainly want to investigate their claims that teleportation is the best way to travel. I’d even be delighted to take on the job myself.
Spineless
Frank sets herself the task of scrutinising the dynamic ecosystem of companies offering gene tests and related services. Her exploration of the emerging industry is entertaining, provocative and personal. But she shirks the responsibility of pinning all these characteristics together through a central argument – she places all the stories in the right order, but there’s no sugar-phosphate backbone to them.
There are plenty of things Frank achieves in her book. Most notably, she balances her dual objective of discovering both the industry and her own genetic fate rather well. The author’s interest in her own genome brings the book to life in ways that might have been impossible otherwise. It is hugely gratifying to read an interview with, say, the founder and director of deCODEme, Kári Stefánsson. Iceland’s deCODEme is one of the first companies offering genomic testing to the public. Frank’s meeting with this “notoriously gruff” man has a fascinating tension because she speaks with him as both a journalist and a client. Even ‘client’ in this context contains the complex balance of being both a ‘patient’ and ‘customer’. A candid Dane, Frank spars with Stefánsson, who she describes as “majestic” and notes that he is the descendant of a tenth-century Icelandic poet remembered for loutish behaviour.
Unique portraits
It is by pulling together such fascinating observations with her probing questions and need for reassurance that Frank tells her story. She gradually builds up a series of unique portraits – not just of Stefánsson, but also James Watson, co-discoverer of the double helix, and entrepreneurs such as Tamara Brown. Brown is head of research at Zurich-based GenePartner, which claims to find genetically suitable love interests for folks who are happy to send off a cheek swab.
For genetics geeks, Frank offers up a feast of delights. There is an entire sequence devoted to a particular single-nucleotide polymorphism (a little piece of DNA known as an SNP, pronounced snip). Frank writes that this SNP, rs3761418, “is on the BCR gene on chromosome 22”, just in case you wouldn’t know where to look should you find yourself staring down a microscope. This level of detail could turn off readers who find it too technical, or, conversely, not specific enough. But in the context of a book in which the author is trying to communicate the delicate interplay of our 3 billion DNA base pairs, it is appropriate and effective.
All in all, it’s the whole genome
The book as a whole could have been a more effective monitor of the emerging genomic industry. Frank is honest and clear, so My Beautiful Genome could have done with more of her arguments about this sector too. She is perhaps a little too interested in what her subjects are finding out about genes to worry about how they are making money from their discoveries – and what the real impact of that commercialisation is. That is what a popular science book like My Beautiful Genome can and should do: communicate not only the science, but the ripples it sends through society.
Image courtesy of DaveFayram.