InnovationRx: Beethoven’s Genome; Plus, Billionaires Back New Kind Of Health Research

he composer Ludwig van Beethoven first began to experience hearing loss in his mid-20s. He also suffered from chronic stomach pain and, towards the end of his life, displayed jaundice – the yellow skin associated with liver disease. His health problems have been the subject of much speculation and a team of international scientists have finally gotten some answers: thanks to developments in whole genome sequencing and five strands of his hair.

It took more than a billion dollars and 20 years to sequence the first human genome. Advances in technology have now rapidly driven down the time and cost. A U.K. government agency recently announced a $126 million program to sequence the genomes of up to 200,000 babies for more than 200 genetic diseases. There is a similar project underway in New York City to test 100,000 newborns.

Ludwig Van Beethoven

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Beethoven’s Genome Reveals Clues to His Bad Health and Early DeathThe prodigious composer had serious liver problems and a hepatitis infection sometime before he died in 1827. Yeah I'm gonna go with living in an era where people threw their piss and shit in the street having more to do with it than genome
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Beethoven's death: Whole-genome sequencing from hair reveals Hepatitis BResearchers carry out an advanced genomic analysis of Ludwig von Beethoven’s hair, shedding light on his chronic health problems and cause of death.
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