I expect to get my full genome sequenced in a few years, at the latest. When that happens, I’ll try and place it online at a public repository. Why? There’s something of a chicken and egg issue with the utility of genomes. The more you have out there, the more juice you can squeeze. I’m going to add phenotypic information too. You probably aren’t surprised by this stance from me, but I just realized that if there are ~30,000 human genomes sequenced right now…it’s probably impossible logistically and bureaucratically (and perhaps computationally, right now) to analyze them all at the same time. The 1000 Genomes is going to make a big difference. But if you look at their list of populations surveyed over time you’ll see that there have been several false-starts, probably due to bureaucratic problems.
Perhaps I’m naive, but my thought is that it’s fine to look at common diseases and common variants. But how are we going to find rare variants if we can’t pool lots and lots of individuals? I suspect it’s a matter of time anyway, and why not push on the margin? I invite readers and other bloggers to make the same pledge. I’ve been blogging since 2002, so I suspect you’ll be in a position to ask me what the status is in ~2013. I hear from people all the time that human genomics is “scary.” Well, I’m not scared, and I’m going to try and show that my lack of fear is more than just words.