Here Is a Human Being: At the Dawn of Personal Genomics

In April 2007, Misha Angrist became the fourth subject in the Personal Genome Project. The project, led by Harvard geneticist George Church, aims to sequence the entire genomic catalogue -- 25,000 genes! -- of ten individuals, with the hope of better understanding how our genes give rise to our physical traits and medical conditions. Individuals' genomic sequences will, when analyzed in large groups, provide us with information about traits ranging from height, to athletic prowess, to behavior, to assorted health conditions -- cancers or diabetes or forms of male pattern baldness. To this end, Dr. Church says that some of us must place our genomes and health records in the public domain for all to study. The Personal Genome Project will take the first steps towards this goal. Angrist, who holds a PhD in genetics as well as an MFA, was intrigued by the idea of introducing something as private as one's DNA into the public arena, and signed himself up to experience this unprecedented experiment firsthand.

One of Angrist's fellow subjects, a doctor and techno-junky, is Chief Information Officer at Harvard Medical School -- and, he had an electronic chip implanted in his arm just to see what it's like. Another is an MD and CEO who was a serial sperm donor when he was a young man; he has since learned that he's fathered hundreds of biological children. Another is Chief Scientific Officer at an internet genetics company; she was made to prostrate herself before a hostile Congressional committee. Public intellectual Esther Dyson, sometimes called "the First Lady of Cyberspace" or "Queen of the Digerati," is another subject; she sees her genome as just another piece of data to put on Facebook and MySpace.

In HERE IS A HUMAN BEING Angrist brings us the first, inside story of the Personal Genome Project, its larger-than-life research subjects, as well as the political, social, and ethical issues that emerged throughout the study. DNA technology has already changed our health care, the food we eat, and our criminal justice system-and it is poised to change much more. Unlocking the secrets of our genome not only opens the door to understanding why we are the way we are and potentially to fixing what ails us, but many difficult questions as well. What do we do with this information? Do we act on it? Do we share it with our children? Will we be discriminated against in the workplace? HERE IS A HUMAN BEING explores these complicated questions, while documenting Angrist's fascinating, exciting, nerve-wracking journey -- one that thousands of us will soon make.