{"id":13837,"date":"2012-07-01T01:50:18","date_gmt":"2012-07-01T00:50:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/communicatescience.com\/zoonomian\/?p=13837"},"modified":"2013-11-30T10:13:02","modified_gmt":"2013-11-30T10:13:02","slug":"book-review-here-is-a-human-being-by-misha-angrist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communicatescience.com\/zoonomian\/2012\/07\/01\/book-review-here-is-a-human-being-by-misha-angrist\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review &#8211; Here Is a Human Being, by Misha Angrist"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/communicatescience.com\/zoonomian\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/misha-angrist-cover1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"13851\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/communicatescience.com\/zoonomian\/2012\/07\/01\/book-review-here-is-a-human-being-by-misha-angrist\/misha-angrist-cover1\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/communicatescience.com\/zoonomian\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/misha-angrist-cover1.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"415,634\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Here Is a Human Being\" data-image-description=\"&lt;p&gt;Here Is a Human Being&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/communicatescience.com\/zoonomian\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/misha-angrist-cover1.jpg\" class=\"alignleft  wp-image-13851\" title=\"Here Is a Human Being\" alt=\"Here Is a Human Being\" src=\"https:\/\/communicatescience.com\/zoonomian\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/misha-angrist-cover1-311x476.jpg\" width=\"206\" height=\"316\" srcset=\"https:\/\/communicatescience.com\/zoonomian\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/misha-angrist-cover1-311x476.jpg 311w, https:\/\/communicatescience.com\/zoonomian\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/misha-angrist-cover1.jpg 415w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 206px) 100vw, 206px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Hardcover:<\/strong> 352 pages<\/li>\n<li><strong>Publisher:<\/strong> HarperCollins; 1 edition (1 Dec 2010)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Language<\/strong> English<\/li>\n<li><strong>ISBN-10:<\/strong> 0061628336<\/li>\n<li><strong>ISBN-13:<\/strong> 978-0061628337<\/li>\n<li><strong> Product Dimensions: <\/strong> 15.2 x 2.9 x 22.9 cm<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Between 2006 and 2010, half a million 40-69 year olds, including yours truly, joined the UK<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ukbiobank.ac.uk\/\">BioBank<\/a> project.\u00a0 We agreed to share lifestyle and medical information &#8211; not to mention blood, saliva, and urine samples &#8211; all to help researchers get a better handle on the incidence, cause, and treatment of disease.\u00a0 With enough subjects, the logic goes, associations between an individual&#8217;s characteristics and their health can inform our understanding and treatment of the wider population.<\/p>\n<p>No surprise then that only a few pages in to Misha Angrist&#8217;s\u00a0 <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.co.uk\/gp\/product\/0061628336\/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=zoonomian-21&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=1634&amp;creative=6738&amp;creativeASIN=0061628336\">Here Is a Human Being: At the Dawn of Personal Genomics<\/a><\/em><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.co.uk\/e\/ir?t=zoonomian-21&amp;l=as2&amp;o=2&amp;a=0061628336\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" border=\"0\" \/><em><\/em> I spotted the obvious link between his experience as the fourth subject in Harvard Medical School&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.personalgenomes.org\/\">Personal Genome Project (&#8216;PGP)<\/a> &#8211; the theme of his book &#8211; and my own humble contribution to medicine.\u00a0 Both projects are based on ideas around association, to one degree or another involve genomics in support of healthcare goals, and as James Watson said to Angrist on the value of personal genomics, they create &#8220;a more compassionate, better society&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Clearly, there must be differences, otherwise I&#8217;d have got to write the book and hang out with the likes of Stephen Pinker &#8211; with Angrist settling for the return bus fare to a medical testing center in Croydon.\u00a0 The distinction is mainly down to issues of privacy, plus the fact that Angrist&#8217;s genome was sequenced when it was still a big expensive deal to do that.<\/p>\n<p>UKBiobank data is anonymised.\u00a0 Even the researchers working with my genome (if and when it&#8217;s ever sequenced) won&#8217;t know my name .\u00a0 Angrist&#8217;s PGP data, however, is public: genome, life style, medical history; it&#8217;s just out there &#8211; totally, with his name on it.\u00a0 To take part in PGP you have to take an exam to show you know what you&#8217;re doing; those in the spearhead PGP-10 group required a Masters level training in genetics.\u00a0 More importantly, as Angrist gets to see his own stuff under the PGP rules, he can share the motivations, emotions, excitement and anxieties that go with that kind of exposure and self-knowledge.\u00a0 (How effective promises of confidentiality in programs that have them really are is a whole different, but related, topic.)<\/p>\n<p>Human genomics is a young field.\u00a0 The first composite human genome was published by the U.S. government&#8217;s Human Genome Project (HGP) in 2003.\u00a0 A parallel commercial project led by Craig Venter and the Celera Corporation published Venter&#8217;s personal genome in 2007.\u00a0\u00a0 Early processes were slow and costs correspondingly high; but the promise, particularly for medicine, was great.\u00a0 Now, as the dream of a medical revolution fades, and free-falling costs open the way for mass genomic profiling, attention has turned more to protecting the public from what some see as a useless, possibly dangerous, product of an immature science &#8211; peddled by an exploitative industry.\u00a0 Insurance companies circle round the latest hot tool for risk minimisation, ready to turn our genome against us. \u00a0 Bridging the exclusive and commodity phases on the human gemonics timeline, Angrist brings an insiders eye to bear on an uncertain period.\u00a0 As he says &#8220;I had arrived at the theatre early enough to grab a good seat, but the carpenters were still building the sets.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s fashionable to talk about personal genomics in terms of its profound complexities and limitations, and not its useful applications.\u00a0 You can see why though.\u00a0 In predicting disease, genes tell only part of the story alongside environmental factors.\u00a0 As Angrist says, we need to link environment (was a child exposed to lead paint), phenotype (how much did it weigh), and lifestyle (what did I have for breakfast) with personal genomic profiles.\u00a0 He cites rheumatoid arthritis as an example where from twin studies we know the risk is only 50% genome related.\u00a0 Disease\u00a0 is sometimes associated with single defective genes, but more often is the combined expression of many genes interacting with each other and the environment.\u00a0 Relevant genes may exist anywhere throughout the genome, requiring researchers to search the whole smash &#8211; with no clues on appearance or location.\u00a0 To complicate things further, the same disease is caused by different gene combinations in different people.<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s not to say some genetic associations don&#8217;t give personal genome candidates pause for thought.\u00a0 When, in a separate study, James Watson&#8217;s genome was sequenced, he chose not to know his risk of the incurable Altzheimer&#8217;s disease; Angrist&#8217;s fellow PGPer Stephen Pinker made the same choice.\u00a0 As interesting perhaps is the fact that many people <em>do<\/em> want to know their Altzheimer&#8217;s risk &#8211; despite the disease&#8217;s incurability, and that studies show they <em>can<\/em> handle the knowledge.\u00a0 Angrist has a special interest in the breast cancer gene variants BRCA1 and BRCA2, as his daughters would be at an 80% life-time risk were he to pass on defective versions; it seems personal genomes aren&#8217;t so personal after all.\u00a0 In one of the most human moments in the book, Angrist sits\u00a0 alone with his genome report, about to discover this type of information for the first time.<\/p>\n<p>Angrist is at pains to show where human genomics contributes beyond disease prediction, pointing to work on: drug efficacy across ethnic groups and individuals (testing for hyper-sensitivity to warfarin blood thinner), resolution of paternity disputes (10% of\u00a0 fathers are not biological), donor screening (of blood and sperm), and identification of lost racial origins or heritance.\u00a0 One company specialises in providing genome-based nutritional advice, perhaps advising someone whose gene mix inhibits calcium absorption to consider taking a supplement.\u00a0 Ethically intriguing applications include the use of genetic selection to identify our ideal partner or love match.\u00a0 These on top of the widely used law enforcement applications of DNA we know and love from TV shows like CSI.<\/p>\n<p>Angrist weaves plenty of historical, technical, and commercial detail into his personal story, much of it original and drawn from interviews with fellow PGP&#8217;ers (a truly mixed bag of characters and motivations in their own right), PGP Founder George Church, and a host of specialists in genomics and medicine &#8211; including some insightful tid-bits from former HGP Director Francis Collins and James Watson.<\/p>\n<p>You won&#8217;t retain it all &#8211; I sometimes lost track of who exactly developed what, when, and where; who went bust and reappeared again, etc. &#8211; but the main take-away is clear enough.\u00a0 That despite any limitations and historical hype &#8211; &#8220;the marketing of personal genomics has outpaced the science&#8221; &#8211; personal human genomics is far from valueless, and has great potential if we hang in with it.\u00a0 Specifically, Angrist believes the tangled complexity of genotype-phenotype associations may unravel if a sufficiently large sample of cross-referenced data is available.\u00a0 And with over a thousand active participants in the PGP in 2012, and thousands more in the queue, it looks like that might just happen.<\/p>\n<p>RECOMMENDED.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"width: 120px; height: 240px;\" src=\"http:\/\/rcm-uk.amazon.co.uk\/e\/cm?t=zoonomian-21&amp;o=2&amp;p=8&amp;l=as1&amp;asins=0061628336&amp;ref=qf_sp_asin_til&amp;fc1=000000&amp;IS2=1&amp;lt1=_blank&amp;m=amazon&amp;lc1=0000FF&amp;bc1=000000&amp;bg1=FFFFFF&amp;f=ifr\" height=\"240\" width=\"320\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Misha Angrist blogs at <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.plos.org\/genomeboy\/\">GenomeBoy.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Also of interest:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/thednaexchange.com\/2013\/11\/29\/the-fda-calls-a-penalty-on-23andme\/\">http:\/\/thednaexchange.com\/2013\/11\/29\/the-fda-calls-a-penalty-on-23andme\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hardcover: 352 pages Publisher: HarperCollins; 1 edition (1 Dec 2010) Language English ISBN-10: 0061628336 ISBN-13: 978-0061628337 Product Dimensions: 15.2 x 2.9 x 22.9 cm &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Between 2006 and 2010, half a million 40-69 year olds, including yours truly, joined the UKBioBank project.\u00a0 We agreed to share lifestyle and medical information &#8211; not to &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/communicatescience.com\/zoonomian\/2012\/07\/01\/book-review-here-is-a-human-being-by-misha-angrist\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Book Review &#8211; Here Is a Human Being, by Misha Angrist<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17740,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[175,843,1286,7],"tags":[1292,1287,1289,1288,1199,1290,1291],"class_list":["post-13837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-biology","category-book-reviews","category-genetics","category-medicine","tag-here-is-a-human-being","tag-misha-angrist","tag-personal-genome-project","tag-angrist","tag-genome","tag-pgp","tag-ukbiobank"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/communicatescience.com\/zoonomian\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/genes_tn.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pkpOr-3Bb","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communicatescience.com\/zoonomian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communicatescience.com\/zoonomian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communicatescience.com\/zoonomian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communicatescience.com\/zoonomian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communicatescience.com\/zoonomian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13837"}],"version-history":[{"count":262,"href":"https:\/\/communicatescience.com\/zoonomian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13837\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18306,"href":"https:\/\/communicatescience.com\/zoonomian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13837\/revisions\/18306"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communicatescience.com\/zoonomian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communicatescience.com\/zoonomian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communicatescience.com\/zoonomian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communicatescience.com\/zoonomian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}