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Unit 3. Reading. Page 37.

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A Healthier Tomorrow

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From the Stone Age to today's Information Age,

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we humans have used the materials around us to revolutionise our world.

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However, some say that we are about to enter a new age.

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According to experts, the new and defining element of our next stage of development

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will be something that comes from inside us, our genes.

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This, they say, is the dawn of the genetic age.

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So, what will the key technologies of the genetic age be?

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If you only paid attention to headline-grabbing stories in the media,

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you might believe that our genetic future seems a bit trivial.

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For example, it was recently reported that a Korean company,

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R-N-L-B-I-O, had been commissioned to clone someone's dog.

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Although it costs, at current prices, 87,000 euros to have your pet cloned,

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the company is expecting good business once the technology becomes cheaper.

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Also, a major European football club has admitted that it is looking for a genetic test

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to find the crack footballers of tomorrow.

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Thanks to a discovery made by researchers at the European University in Madrid, young players may, in the near future, be routinely tested for a speed gene.

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The idea is that if this gene is found to be part of their genetic code, they could have a natural predisposition to success on the pitch and, therefore, be sold to other teams for megabucks.

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Despite the silly stories making the front pages of the press, it is much more likely that the genetic age will be characterized by a revolution in health care.

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The human genome was first decoded just a few years ago, but already our knowledge about how genetics affects our health is transforming the way diseases are understood, treated and predicted.

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Tests are already available to show who is most at risk from over 1,300 diseases, including cancer, diabetes and heart disease

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People with a family history of certain diseases can be screened to see if they are at risk

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and be given appropriate drugs or treatment as early as possible

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Unfortunately, finding the genes that cause illness does not mean that a disease can be

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prevented yet. At the moment, most drugs produced by pharmaceutical companies are treatments

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for the symptoms of ill health. The challenge for the future will be to produce genetic

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cures. The first of these is expected to be produced within a few years and will help

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to eradicate a form of blindness in old people.

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So the next time genetics hits the headlines, let's hope it's about a medical discovery

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that makes incurable disease preventable, rather than sports stars or cloned pets.