Thinking the impossible

The first genome was sequenced over a decade ago – it took years of collaboration between scientists around the world and cost millions of research dollars. But today it takes hours to sequence a human genome and it costs around US$1,000. Which means that we are entering the age of personalized genomics. But what does it mean to know the sequence of my genome? What does it teach me about who I am?

Jonathan Weitzman was the founding Director of the Centre for Epigenetics and Cell Fate and he is a Professor of Genetics at the University of Paris, France. Jonathan is also director of the interdisciplinary Labex Who Am I? and the graduate school G.E.N.E.