BANKING ON DNA

摘要

Every day for the past three years, 600 or so additional British citizens file into medical offices around the country. They are responding to a letter, stamped "BioBank" in blue letters, that begins: "We are writing to ask for your help in studying the prevention and treatment of cancer, heart attacks, strokes, diabetes, dementia, and many other serious diseases." The British government wants to collect peoples' blood, urine and saliva; measure their waistlines and heart rates; sequence their DNA; and ask them questions like "How hot do you drink your tea?"