The (unfulfilled) promise of personalized medicine

This recent piece in the NY times outlines one of the current follies in biomedical research. The idea -- sift the human genome and find common, widespread variations that explain some of the most common diseases -- sounded great; in fact, it was downright sexy. But one researcher thinks that's a bunch of rubbish, and that the current (and very expensive) approach isn't working. And some of his rationale is rooted in the logic of rigorous genetic and evolutionary theory.

Not to sound cynical or say "I told you so," but personalized genomic medicine sure sounds a lot like a science project for which many of its conclusions (we'll know what causes X cancer and Y vascular disease) would be highly anticipated at the start of the study.

At any rate, this is food for thought, and we invite the discussion to continue in the "comments" section below.

(Plus, the article is an interesting look into a scientist who has blended population genetics with, in my best estimation, anthropology...)