genomeboy.com

Here is a Human Being: At the Dawn of Personal Genomics will be published November 1 2010 by HarperCollins. The book is part memoir, part science geek fest, and part journalism. It traces the emergence of a once-radical notion that has, in a just a few short years, become entrenched: the idea that nearly anyone can get access to his or her own DNA sequence for any reason at all. It gives an inside account of the Personal Genome Project, Harvard geneticist and visionary George Church’s ambitious plan to sequence many genomes and make them public. It tells the human stories behind the technology that has enabled personal genomics, the companies seeking to sell you your genetic information, the do-it-yourselfers trying to find genetic answers about themselves and their families, and the conflicted doctors and scientists who find themselves less than completely prepared for the genomic age. I also tell my own story: a trained human geneticist and genetic counselor eager (perhaps too eager) to experience the life of a research subject and begin to understand what this information means for me, for my family…for all of us.