Genomics and Public Health

The population-based approach of public health genomics provides the best strategy to translate scientific discovery to improvements in health, according to Muin Khoury, director of the CDC's National Office of Public Health Genomics.

Khoury spoke for the final installment of the 2006-07 SPH Roundtable Series, "International Health Issues and Human Rights." The roundtables offer a venue to discuss timely public health issues.

Khoury says we need to move beyond the nature/nurture debate when discussing disease.

"Genes or the environment? It's both. This is an obsolete question," he said. "We know that all human disease is the result of genes and the environment."

While many experts see schisms among the cultures of basic science, medicine, and public health, Khoury sees opportunity--and public health genomics is key. Right now genomics is "lost in translation," he said. Scientific discoveries aren't translating to improvements in population health.

While there have been breakthrough discoveries in identifying the gene variance behind disease, "the question is what do we do with the genes when we find them?"

The best way to bridge the gap between discovery and delivery, Khoury says, is to take a population-based approach to genomics. He outlined four focus areas to follow: prevention, public health science, knowledge integration, and real-world health outcomes.

"The population health approach provides the best strategy for the appropriate application of genomics in health practice in the 21st century," he said.

Khoury's presentation was preceded by a tribute to Rachel Carson, who would have turned 100 this year. Carson is best known for her 1962 landmark book on the dangers of DDT, Silent Spring. To view this presentation, go to http://cpheo.sph.umn.edu/cpheo/events/roundtable.