Genomics

by Whitney Stewart and Hans C Andersson

[annieb123]

Originally published on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

Genomics: A Revolution in Health and Disease Discovery is a STE(A)M biotechnology selection aimed at young people (~6th grade and up). Due out 1st Sept 2020 from Lerner, it's 144 pages and will be available in library bound and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.

I'm a bioengineer in my day job. During my educational training, I always expected to work in my field after graduation with genomics/data processing/visual framework or histopathology. There are still times I (almost) regret continuing with pathology because genomics and allied research -is- the bedrock of the future of diagnostic and clinical medicine. I've been going on and on about the importance of -early- STE(A)M education for everyone because getting young people interested in and excited about science and technology are absolutely critical not just to raising the next generation of doctors, engineers, and mathematicians, but also to raising a public who can understand science, think and reason critically, and make sound informed decisions about their own healthcare.

This is an interesting and accessible treatment of genomics, what DNA is, what it means for organisms (humans), what sequencing is, how it works, and what that means in practical terms for the general population. The book starts with a medical case presentation, of a musician who had diverse and diffuse symptoms over a long period. How his case resolved and was managed makes an interesting story for readers (and I appreciated that it wasn't presented as a miracle cure, "wave a wand like they do on TV" and cure the patient before the second commercial break).

After the introduction, the book proceeds from the basic concepts (a capsule history of genetics, the development of screening, mapping the genome, Sanger vs. next-gen), a look at the benefits and drawbacks of direct to consumer sequencing and testing, and a look at the potential future of genomics.

The book is aimed at young(ish) readers, it gives a capsule overview, but the authors did include some resource links for further reading. Admirably, it doesn't get bogged down in minutiae and doesn't go into enough detail to scare off layman/beginner readers. New terms are defined in the text and the book does include an abbreviated glossary.

I found myself going through the book thinking "oh, but what about" and "ooh, they didn't include"... but the fact is, this is a good BASIC introduction to the concepts which can be digested and understood. With a subject as vast as the genetic variation of the human life on our planet, it's amazing they managed to pluck out a good overview of topics. If it comes across (to someone in the field with 20 years of experience) that they missed out a lot, it's because they managed to give a good taste of a wide variety of information with good enough annotation that readers can move to investigate and read about the specific points they're interested in.

This would make a superlative library selection, or gift for a young person. Four stars. I enjoyed it a lot.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.