Sequencing in SciFi
Over on the Discord we’ve been chatting about DNA sequencing in Science fiction. I am, quite transparently, a huge nerd and SciFi fan.
One of the interesting things SciFi (or what some call prefer to call Speculative Fiction) allows us to do is imagine what the impact of future technologies might be.
There are of course a number of works that have featured DNA sequencing. But I’m only aware of one film that really puts sequencing front a center, the 1997 film GATTACA.
I recently made a video about this, views are appreciated! But I also discuss what I felt is the most interesting point in the birth scene below…
The main thing that struck me is that we have already moved beyond the technology described in GATTACA in certain respects.
In GATTACA our hero (Vincent) is genetically tested shortly after birth. It takes less than a second to sequence his entire genome and provide percentage based risk scores for various conditions. In particular, he is given an expected life span of 30 years based on a heart condition.
While this is very impressive, today Vincent could have been tested via NIPT a few weeks after conception. NIPT is of course widely available for trisomies (e.g. Down’s syndrome)… but using the technology of GATTACA assembling a full fetal genome seems like it should be trivial.
Fetal fractions in maternal cfDNA tend to be in the 10 to 20% range, even today if you were to spend enough on sequencing a full fetal genome seems like it might be possible.
With the seemingly perfect understanding of genetics presented in GATTACA, and his parents negative reaction to his genetic condition. It seems likely that Vincent might never have been born…
How much prenatal testing is desirable is the subject of debate, and I’m not going to weigh in on that here.
But I like to think that we will also get increasingly better at treating genetic diseases, rather than just screening for them. In Vincent’s case, new gene editing approaches to curing genetic heart diseases seem particularly promising.
This seems like the biggest part of the story that’s missing from GATTACA. That sequencing (and editing), while no doubt creating the potential for new ethical issues, can also give us new tools to address human health, regardless of genetic makeup at birth.
If you find this kind of stuff interesting pop over to the Discord and suggest your favorite sequencing sci-fi or subscribe here. If people are interested, I’d love to look at more scenes from GATTACA and other films and books in the future.