My Beautiful Genome: Welcome to the World of Humans 2.0

My Beautiful Genome: Welcome to the World of Humans 2.0


Recently I asked my students if they had any knowledge of genetics. “Good or bad genetics,” one said. “What do you mean?” I asked. “You know, good like forensic science where they use DNA tests for criminals or bad like the Nazi’s,” was the response. “Aha,” I exclaimed, “You’ve just expressed the fundamental debate about our future. Will the practice of genetics as a science and as a big business lead to genetic determinism and a dystopian world? Will it create earth-shattering therapeutic innovations to improve our lives? Or will it be a mixture of both? That’s why reading the entire book called My Beautiful Genome, Exposing Our Genetic Future, One Quirk at a Time by Lone Frank is so important.” And off to the races we were, on a journey to discuss why the future is all about, like it or not, being Humans 2.0 where the intersection of genetics, medicine, technology, and capital will transform our daily lives and the societies we live in. 

Thankfully this initial foray blossomed into a conversation about the value of reading. My argument was that since the commercialization of the Internet our cultural practices have changed including the way we read. There are multiple reasons why I encourage students to read complete books rather than specific chapters. In a world where reading is becoming more fragmented and concise—content delivered in snippets on Twitter, Facebook, blogs, and increasingly in what were once “traditional” media outlets—simply reading a complete book, especially if it is challenging, becomes a reward in itself and brings a sense of accomplishment. At it’s best, reading an entire book should open one’s mind to new avenues of thought and lead the reader to new vistas of expression and perspective about the world we live in. 

Books can change our lives in various ways. One student said she had just finished reading American Gods and that it made her think more critically about the role media and celebrity play in our culture (ironically, the book was the winner of One Book, One Twitter project). “Yeah, I loved Freakonomics, a classmate chimed-in, “I realized I can impact the world by asking the right questions.” This is why we are reading My Beautiful Genome, I told the class, it will change the way you think about the future as it did for me. Physics ruled the 20th Century but genetics will rule the 21st. Learning about the potential consequences of genetic research and practices is essential to understanding why a vast historical transformation, one that will shape our lives and the lives of future generations, is underway. 

Lone Frank’s My Beautiful Genome is a powerfully written investigation into the scientific field of Behavioral Genetics. The book’s force lies in her personal journey of trying to discover whether there is a connection between genes and personality. As a professional biologist Frank seeks to learn if there is a genetic basis for her chronic depression in the hope she can alter her future behavior. Frank is adept at making a complex set of subjects accessible to her readers and she writes with an intense sense of self-awareness and humor. She guides her reader through the fabulously labyrinthine worlds of personal gene profiles, gene splicing, epigenetics, neo-eugenics, and consumer services such as genetic dating and genetic genealogy. Various intriguing questions emerge along the way. Are consumers educated enough to deal with the genetic revolution in a free market or is there a need for regulation? Is there a right to genetic privacy? Are there specific genetic markers for mental illnesses like schizophrenia, borderline personality disorder, and depression? Is there a genetic basis for aggression, for compulsive hoarding, for the political choices we make (a subfield of behavioral genetics is genopolitics), for intelligence, and sexual preference? Can we combine personality inventory surveys and genetic tests to predict human behavior? The biggest question of all is whether we are defined by our biology or our culture—the fundamental nature versus nurture issue.

The concept that genetic practices are “bad,” based on the sordid history of eugenics and human experimentation, is culturally pervasive. Historians have done an excellent job tracing how eugenic ideas, originating with Galton’s call in 1883 for the British to encourage superior couples to have more children, has resulted in horrific outcomes ranging from the forcible isolation and sterilization of “inferiors” to human experimentation by the Nazi’s and Japanese during World War II to centrally organized practices of genocide. After World War II, “genetic tinkering,” as Frank calls it, became understood as “bad scientific practice” in the public sphere. As a result, Frank writes, “we have long convinced ourselves that everything human is just a social construction, that we have no nature but, on the contrary, are defined by our culture.” But today, sparked by the Human Genome Project, there is no question that the biological view of humanity is on the rise. This leads to dire, ideologically blinded, apocalyptic warnings about genetic determinism from all quarters of academia and has made its way into such popular films as Gattaca. To participate in shaping the future of genetics we must allow the past to remain as a guide but learn in what ways the present is different—to acknowledge biology is central to the way we develop and offers the potential to create therapeutic breakthroughs unseen since the bacteriological revolution. Frank’s essential project in My Beautiful Genome is to explain why biology and culture are intertwined—both nature and nature matter in how personality develops.

“Genes do not code for behavior, they code for proteins. Networks of genes work together with environmental factors and the brain’s physiological development and function to create what we call behavior,” reports Frank. What is fascinating about Frank’s journey through a variety of sub-fields in behavioral genetics is that the scientists she meets are not determinists, it’s only the capitalists who seek to make a profit off of vulnerable, uninformed, and sometimes desperate consumers who push the idea that behavior can be understood only by biology.

For example, genetic researchers working on mental illnesses believe there is a personality type of “highly sensitive people.” They think variants of a serotonin transporter (SERT) and an enzyme Monoamine oxidase (MAOA) make certain people more susceptible to negative and positive influences in the development of their personalities. Research is beginning to show that the decisive effect on whether sensitive personality types become robust, thriving people or end-up with behavioral problems is the environment created by their parent/s. Children who are neglected or meet with violence or trauma and especially those who feel rejected or restricted and overprotected combined with the “vulnerable variants” of SERT and MAOA are the ones who develop behavior problems or become mentally ill. If over time studies like these prove to be statistically significant, genetic testing combined with proactive intervention programs for children might offer new insights into developing human potential to it’s fullest. Taking both biology and environment into account also suggests those who suffer from certain behavioral problems might be able to identify their issues as a combination of genes and upbringing that can be overcome by new techniques of cognitive control. 

There is no question that the commercialization of genetics holds many dark possibilities and Frank debunks a number of genetic based businesses as fraudulent, including the pharmaceutical industry push to sell SSRI’s as miracle drugs for depression. While the “big issues” about the future of genetics are at the heart of Frank’s book, there are many delightfully twisted moments as well. She describes the free market versus regulation conflicts at the first Consumer Genetics Show with a wry sense of humor. There’s her visit to a company called GenePartner where she, a colleague, and her boyfriend have gotten gene profiles—the results show the colleague is a “perfect” match who would have a “better” child with Frank than her boyfriend. The colleague drolly remarks, “Do you realize what this child would do for your book?” Who wouldn’t want to read her interview with James Watson, co-discoverer of the double helix, who explains why “most people are complete idiots”? Reading about genetic research and its applications is not just a form of trivial knowledge acquisition—it’s essential to understanding the world around us.

Frank makes learning about the practice of genetics enticing and fun and that’s why My Beautiful Genome is a good read. As she concludes, “genetic consciousness is the remaking of consciousness itself.” One in five deaths in the United States is due to faulty medication. Did you know that genetic tests are available to indicate how your body metabolizes various drugs? Probably not and that’s because your doctor doesn’t either. My Beautiful Genome should change your historical consciousness as well, one that might help you decide if the future of Humans 2.0 will be a chronic nightmare or a euphoric reality.

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Chris teaches intellectual history for the History Department at DePaul University. His course offerings include the History of Science and Medicine, History of Chicago, Environmental History, and American Survey courses. He is completing a manuscript, American Boredom: The Origins of a Way of Life, 1885-1950. After working in the film industry for five years, Chris attended Columbia University in New York. At Columbia he conducted research on the origins of physicians assistant training programs during the Vietnam War and the intervention of large insurance companies in the treatment of tuberculosis during the early 20th Century.

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