WASHINGTON — US researchers have decoded the entire genome of patients to identify the root cause of their diseases paving the way towards individual genomic treatments, according to newly published studies. James Lupski of Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, sequenced his own genome to locate the gene responsible for the rare neurological disorder he suffers from, Charcot-Marie-Tooth syndrome. Although not life threatening, the disorder affects nerve function in the body’s limbs, hands and feet, leading to trouble walking and frequently to deformation of the feet. ‘This is the first time we have tried to identify a disease gene this way,’ Lupski, vice chair of molecular and human genetics at Baylor College of Medicine. ‘It demonstrates that the technology is robust enough that we can find disease genes by determining the whole genome sequence,’ he said. He said the technology can now be used ‘to interpret the clinical information in the context of the sequence of the hand of cards you have been dealt. Isn’t that the goal or dream of personalized genomic medicine?’ Lupski’s research, published online Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, identified several inherited mutations in copies of […]