“A black hole, never to be filled.”

As I’ve talked to scientists and doctors about my genome test, I’ve always been struck by the notion that, for all the information contained in the genome, it’s not the end-all-be-all for the future of medicine.

But Dr. John Harley, one of the pre-eminent voices in the lupus genetics field, had a different take. DNA might not hold all the answers about lupus, but it definitely holds answers that can’t be found anywhere else.

“It’s not possible to understand this disease without genetics,” he says. “Without the information provided by the genome, this would be a black hole, never to be filled.”

And that’s what makes DNA so fascinating — it’s a piece of almost every medical puzzle yet to be solved, if not the majority of pieces. Without genetics research, there are a whole of lot of diseases that might never be treated or prevented or even properly diagnosed. 

Consider this fact, as well: Dr. Harley says that it was 1943 when the idea that DNA was more than just a bunch of mucus inside the cell. Think about how far have we come in just 60 years. The future ahead of us is bright with the possibilities of what the next 5, 10 or 50 years will bring.