Commonplace sequencing makes disease less rare

Howard Jacob, PhD spoke with genomics and precision medicine publication Clinical OMICS about how commonplace sequencing is making disease less rare.

While the practical approach of empirical trial and error has produced strong therapeutic results for many maladies, rare diseases represent a particular challenge for investigators that has been seemingly insurmountable—until the recent dawn of the genomic era.

“If we can reach a point where insurers and physicians agree that this [NGS] is a standard of care, we’ll see an explosion, because as you establish a standard of care, all of a sudden you move this out from the experimental to deploying it much earlier—so to me that’s the tipping point,” Dr. Jacob concluded.

Read the cover story here.