--- title: The Future of Genomics: Brainstorm Health description: Genetics experts talk at Fortune's Brainstorm Health Conference about CRISPR, the future of genetic testing and its implications. canonical: https://time.com/4764488/crispr-genomic-technology/ author: Alexandra Sifferlin article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-05-03T01:04:54.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:06:10.821Z article:section: Health og:title: How Scientists Think CRISPR Will Change Medicine og:description: Genetic experts talk at Fortune's Brainstorm Health Conference og:url: https://time.com/4764488/crispr-genomic-technology/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt16fc9790c34a6976/6988cbcecd1bba497070508d/genomics-pics.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2048 og:image:height: 1152 og:image:alt: GENOMICS PICS og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How Scientists Think CRISPR Will Change Medicine twitter:description: Genetic experts talk at Fortune's Brainstorm Health Conference twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt16fc9790c34a6976/6988cbcecd1bba497070508d/genomics-pics.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How Scientists Think CRISPR Will Change Medicine > Sponsored content. 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Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ## Video: Brainstorm Health: The pros and cons of genome sequencing [Watch (HLS stream): Brainstorm Health: The pros and cons of genome sequencing](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Bb44vgjW.m3u8) (10:21)  _Published 2017-05-03. Leaders in gene therapy discuss how biotech companies are using genome sequencing data._ by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin May 3, 2017 1:04 AM UTC  Stuart Isett/Fortune Brainstorm Health by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin May 3, 2017 1:04 AM UTC With the advent of [CRISPR](http://time.com/4377130/crispr-genome-editing/), a new way to edit DNA, the field of genomic technology has never been more exciting. The implications have yet to be seen, but scientists could theoretically snip out a person’s genetic risk for disease. But it’s also never been a more anxiety-inducing time. Some experts argue innovations in genomics are moving forward at a pace faster than our ability to parse their potential consequences. In a panel discussion at [_Fortune_’s Brainstorm Health conference in San Diego](http://fortune.com/2017/04/20/brainstorm-health-livestream-2/), scientists discussed the promises and perils of this breakthrough technology—some of which they’re already starting to see. “I think CRISPR is a very exciting discovery,” said J. Craig Venter, co-founder of the health company Human Longevity, Inc. and one of the first scientists to sequence the human genome. Venter is using genome sequencing as a way to help predict a person’s risk for disease and offer more personalized treatment with a physical exam called the [Health Nucleus](http://time.com/4672962/silicon-valley-longer-life/): an eight-hour, $25,000 inside-and-out doctor’s appointment that includes whole-genome sequencing, high-tech scanning and early diagnostics. So far the company has sequenced more than 40,000 human genomes. Of the people that complete the Health Nucleus, one in 40 will discover they have a serious cancer they didn’t know about, he said. Yet some experts are skeptical that exhaustive testing always translates to better health. Dr. Eric Topol, founder and director of Scripps Translational Science Institute, called for a more reserved way forward in his remarks at the conference, arguing that too much scanning can lead to more false positive results and potentially unnecessary interventions. “We have to prove that doing tests are truly associated with positive outcomes,” Topol said. “We have to be much more discriminative about the tests that we do.” Some companies are taking a more tempered approach: inexpensive testing that looks for specific genes known to substantially increase a person’s risk for disease. Color Genomics, a genetics company that has brought down the cost of genetic testing, focuses on cancer and offers affordable tests for the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, which can significantly raise a woman’s risk for breast and ovarian cancer. “It changes the equation in terms of treating disease,” said Othman Laraki, co-founder and CEO of Color Genomics. As for finding and fixing genetic problems well before they even arise? The scientists on the panel agreed that they’re not there yet, and that current iterations of CRISPR may not be quite as precise as the hype has claimed. For now, that may be for the best. “Editing human embryos with CRISPR should be a long way off,” said Venter. “Not something we do next week.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4764488/crispr-genomic-technology/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4764488/crispr-genomic-technology/"},"headline":"How Scientists Think CRISPR Will Change Medicine","datePublished":"2017-05-03T01:04:54.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T08:06:10.821Z","description":"Genetics experts talk at Fortune's Brainstorm Health Conference about CRISPR, the future of genetic testing and its implications.","url":"https://time.com/4764488/crispr-genomic-technology/","keywords":["Fortune","crispr","gene editing"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt16fc9790c34a6976/6988cbcecd1bba497070508d/genomics-pics.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alexandra Sifferlin","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt16fc9790c34a6976/6988cbcecd1bba497070508d/genomics-pics.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"GENOMICS PICS","caption":"","creditText":"Stuart Isett/Fortune Brainstorm Health","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4764488/crispr-genomic-technology/","name":"How Scientists Think CRISPR Will Change Medicine"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Brainstorm Health: The pros and cons of genome sequencing","description":"Leaders in gene therapy discuss how biotech companies are using genome sequencing data.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/Bb44vgjW/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2017-05-03T15:16:41.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Bb44vgjW.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4764488/crispr-genomic-technology/","duration":"PT10M21S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4764488/crispr-genomic-technology/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```