Are you listening, colorectal and testicular cancer advocates?
I am frequently asked what it will take to make personalized medicine a reality. If I’m being honest and not full of my usual bloated self-regard, I will shrug and say, “I have no idea. You should ask someone who might actually know.”
But if pressed and palpated, I would submit that if there’s a single thing missing from the roadmap to personalized medicine, it’s this:
A mascot.
Other folks have recognized this. To wit: Ladies and gentlemen, meet Prosty the Spokesgland©…
But wait, there’s more. The theme song, sung to the tune of Frosty the Snowman and meant to encourage the use of imaging rather than digital exams (yay!), is truly inspired. Dig the last verse:
Lumpety lump lump
Lumpety lump lump
Look at Prosty grow
Lumpety lump lump
Lumpety lump lump
No more bending over so
I work as an Assistant Professor in the Duke University Institute for Genome Sciences & Policy (although this site and its content are my own).
In 2007 I became the fourth subject in Harvard geneticist George Church's Personal Genome Project. As the PGP moves forward, I am chronicling the dawn of personal genomics, that is, people obtaining their genomic information for whatever reason(s) and figuring out what to do with it. I am interested in the relevant technologies and especially the attendant privacy and other ethical/legal/social issues.
This blog may also discuss some of my non-genome interests or, to paraphrase Dwight Yoakam, "Guitars, Cadillacs, hillbilly music, etc etc."
The header image comes from the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange's multimedia performance piece, "Ferocious Beauty: Genome."
February 28th, 2008 at 6:39 pm
OMG!!!! I freakin’ love it! Now we need to see his nemesis Mr. PSA!!!
-Steve
www.thegenesherpa.blogspot.com