I’m not naive. Sequencing is not and will not ever be a panacea. It will lead to many dead ends and probably a lot of broken hearts.

But the Nature editorial accompanying your piece talks about how scary the DIY/Rienhoff approach is. I’m just asking the question: what exactly are we so afraid of? As a parent I think I would be infinitely more worried about my child suffering from an undiagnosed condition than I would about Joe Six Pack running a few PCRs in his basement. I just don’t see how the latter is something we should be fretting about.

In defense of Dietz, I don’t think the essence of his argument was predicated on the fear of outsiders encroaching on his territory. Rather he seemed sincerely worried that such efforts would distract parents and patients and divert resources away from more immediately available treatments. He struck me as a very thoughtful and caring clinician. It may some day be cheap to sequence genes, but at the moment, it’s not, and I hope the story shows that sequence doesn’t necessarily provide clear answers.

Rienhoff admitted he kind of waffled on this point by not putting up instructions to sequence DNA. He is quite positive about the promise such grass-roots efforts hold. He was quoted, not long ago in the Economist as saying something along the lines of “If you can make a soufle, you can do this.” Nevertheless, he defers to Dietz is in part because he respects him and wants to be sure that his daughter will still have access to him and doctors like him.

Cheers!