Now San Diego company Pathway Genomics is preparing to offer a more affordable test to patients. Angelina Jolie tested positive for a genetic mutation that makes breast and ovarian cancer extremely likely. And after the Supreme Court ruled that DNA tests for those mutations cannot be patented, testing will get cheaper.
When San Diegan Brad Lally turned 45 last year, he decided his approaching middle age was the time to get a better handle on his health and fitness. “I wanted to learn more about myself, and specifically, more about my body,” says the global development manager for a local scuba diving equipment company. So Lally turned to cardiologist Samir Damani, who runs MD Revolution in La Jolla, a 21st-century medical practice specializing in genetic counseling.
Here is how the test works: participants give a saliva sample in a tube. The sample goes to a lab and then 80 to 100 genes are examined. DNA is extracted. The test results can tell participants everything from exercise strengths and weaknesses, vitamins that they are lacking and eating behavior.
The San Diego–based lab Pathway Genomics has crunched the academic-research literature and come up with a procedure that looks at 80 genetic markers that affect the way the body processes carbs, fats, and protein and how it will likely respond to exercise. You hand your trainer a test tube of saliva and $400 and complete a lifestyle-and-health questionnaire, then Pathway sends the customized diet-and-exercise report to your doctor.
I have come to accept that I am never going to compete in the Winter Olympics. This is is largely because I have never tried any of the sports. In fact, I have avoided all athletic activities of any kind for my entire life. I’ve always assumed that through no fault of my own, I was born without the genes that would make me able to ski and then stop skiing and shoot things, or to steer a bobsled after a giant man pushed us downhill.
…Ten years ago, the Human Genome Project deciphered the entire human DNA code at a cost of about $3 billion. What no one dreamed at the time was that the technology would quickly become so accessible andso cheap.
At the benefi t, held at Kavanaugh’s Santa Monica, Calif., airport hangar, Ke$ha performed and the movie mogul and former hedge-fund investor mingled with the likes of models Amber Valletta and Alessandra Ambrosio.
Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, Calif. was abuzz last night as the stars gathered to support the fight against breast cancer. Jaimie Alexander, Kellan Lutz, Jessica Roffey, Sophia Bush, and Emmanuelle Chriqui (pictured) were joined by Amber Valetta, Alessandra Ambrosio, Adrian Grenier, Busy Philipps, Jordana Brewster, and more at the Pathway to the Cures for Breast Cancer: A Fundraiser Benefiting Susan G. Komen event.
