Staff Editorial: Duke's future is in its genes

Last week, officials announced a partnership between Duke and Craig Venter, the driving force behind the first successful mapping of the human genome. This partnership will couple the Medical Center's existing resouces with the cutting-edge technology of Venter's Center for the Advancement of Genomics, and place Duke at forefront of genetic research and preventative medicine for years to come.

The collaborative effort will attempt to use DNA sequences extracted from the Medical Center's regular patients to isolate the particular sequences responsible for some of the world's most debilitating diseases, including sickle-cell anemia, cardiovascular ailments and cancer.

Genentic science is universally regarded as the future of medicine, and despite Duke's reputation as a leader in the medical field, it is jumping into the genetics game late. Duke made a strong effort to break onto the genetics scene on its own by devoting $200 million to the construction of the Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy. Now, the partnership with Venter will give Duke access to the newest technology and a formidable reputation in the genetics community. Venter's presence will lend the IGSP an extra appeal that will undoubtedly draw the top genetic researchers in the world to Durham. As a result of this collaboration, Duke is guaranteed to emerge as a national and international leader in genetics research.

Duke/Venter's genetic research could yield some of the most exciting research in Duke's history. Project researchers will be attempting to take the first steps toward practical preventative medicine. Rather than treating patients once they get a disease, genetic researchers hope to eliminate diseases before they even start to affect patients. If preventative care were to become reality, the benefits to patients would be substantial. Costs for hospital care and health insurance would fall dramatically, and the need for expensive, prolonged treatments and suffering would be vastly reduced. If the research is successful, it is likely to be highly influential.

While the benefits of the partnership are numerous and exciting, questions do remain. Officials estimate that it will take five years to get research up and running. During the interim, Duke and Venter must decide how they will manage their potential discoveries. When the sequencing for a disease is found, it will likely be patented immediately. A huge ethical question remains as to whether those patents will be released to other medical centers and corporations right away, or guarded to profit those responsible for their discovery. Genetics may be one of the most important fields of the future, but it is also one of the most ethically ambiguous. As more and more manipulation of human DNA occurs, debates are sure to rage concerning the religous, moral and societal implications of altering our bodies.

Without a doubt, Duke's collaboration with Venter and his Center for the Advancement of Genomics marks an important step on the road to securing Duke's position as a leader in the medical field in the future. While medial breakthroughs are by no means certain, regardless of the eventual outcome of the research, Duke is certain to be the focus of medical, and quite possibly also ethical, debate and advancement in the immediate future.