Euan Ashley is an associate dean of the School of Medicine, the Roger And Joelle Burnell Professor of Genomics and Precision Health, and a professor of medicine, of genetics, and of biomedical data science. Ashley’s research group is focused on the science of precision medicine. In 2010, he led the team that carried out the first clinical interpretation of a human genome.
Svexa’s Co-Founder and Chair of the Board Euan Ashley, Associate Dean in the School of Medicine at Stanford University, believes we have entered a new era of personalised healthcare that will change how we predict, diagnose and treat both rare and common disease. But is he concerned these seismic breakthroughs will create a multi-tier healthcare system with the rich at the front of the queue?
It took ten countries ten years and $3 billion to sequence the human genome but since that seismic breakthrough the time, cost and effort to repeat the feat has plummeted. Euan and his team at Stanford University are known for helping establish the field of medical genomics and conducted the first medical interpretation of the human genome. Most recently his team held a Guinness World Record for the fastest DNA sequencing technique at a little more than five hours.
The implications, as he explains in this in-depth interview with Unfiltered, will change the world, both in extremely rare cases of unknown disease diagnosis for faster treatment, right up to population-level systemic changes to national and international healthcare policy. It has the potential to change everything we thought we knew about genetics, disease, medicine and treatment, and could significantly improve both lifespan and healthspan around the world. These principles of precision medicine are embodied in svexa’s Athlete Passport, and also underpin our approach to hyper-personalized training in Elllida and Thrud.
But it is not without risk, most notably the concern of the creation of a multi-tier healthcare and insurance system in which those with money and influence will always be at the front of the queue. As Dr Ashley explains, the future of the world rests on the right decisions being made.
If you are interested in reading more about Euan and his work, his book The Genome Odyssey is now available as hardcover, paperback, Kindle and Audio.