Your genome and your health

In the future, personal genome sequencing might become a routine part of clinical practice. Doctors will use it to find out which diseases you're at risk of developing and which medicines will treat you effectively, with minimal side effects. But it's not all in your genome: disease susceptibility is influenced by other, non-genetic factors.

Once we know a lot more about how genetic variation affects our disease risk, we may be able to take lifestyle choices that lessen the likelihood of developing these diseases, or delay their onset.