What do fortified tomato plants, so-called “designer babies”, and a plan to bring woolly mammoths back from extinction all have in common? The answer is a relatively new and very exciting branch of science called genomics.

Genomics is the study of all our thousands of genes, the DNA that makes us exactly who we are. Chances are, you may have heard about some of the things happening in this field already: last month, it was revealed that gene-edited tomatoes could provide a new source of vitamin D, for example – a game-changer for people with vitamin deficiencies (and those of us who simply spend too much time indoors in front of a screen).

And yet, many of us would be willing to admit we don’t know much about genomics beyond the headlines. That’s understandable when you consider that the term itself has only existed for about 30 years, since the late 1980s, when an international moonshot initiative was launched to create a full blueprint of all human genes for the first time.

Key terms

DNA: The genetic coding inside our cells that’s responsible for our development and function

Genes: Sequences of DNA that are passed down from parents and define the characteristics of their offspring – including hair and eye colour, height and intelligence

Genome: The complete set of all an organism’s genetic information

Genomic sequencing: The process of determining the exact ordering of all the messages in our DNA. This is done by machine automation using tissue or blood samples.

Since then, gene studies have led to rapid advances in human health and elsewhere, helped in part by the acceleration of technology. Where DNA studies were once long and mystifying processes, these days experts can create a map of all the genes we contain at the click of a button, often using only a tiny blood sample, and translate a lot of the key messages those genes send around our bodies.

By mapping out the genes of all living creatures (humans, plants, animals, even tiny bacteria and viruses), scientists are finding new solutions to some of our biggest and longest-held questions, such as: where did we come from? How can we live healthier, longer lives? And how can we stand a chance of fixing climate change? …and all the other messes we’re making of the planet?

Genomics is affecting almost every aspect of our lives – whether we realise it or not. Here are a few of the ways how.

Healthcare

As anyone who has battled with different brands of contraceptive pill or skin care medication can attest, the way that medicines work on us varies hugely from person to person. Which is obvious when you think about how genetically different we all are, and how we all metabolise things differently. At the moment, most common medicines are designed to work for the average person with average symptoms. But one day soon, when you go to the GP with a problem, they’ll be able to prescribe you medicines that are specifically tailored to your unique combination of genes. This is called precision healthcare, and it’s becoming a reality thanks to genome sequencing.

It could be that we get a small blood test and our whole genetic map is stored on an NHS database. This information could then be cross-referenced against a huge second database of how different drugs work with different genotypes. This information is already being gathered by researchers studying some of the most difficult and life-threatening diseases such as cancer, but eventually it could cover everything, from hay fever tablets to common painkillers.

The Government and the NHS are also currently in discussions about the potential for rolling out genetic sequencing of newborn babies from birth – creating an overview of our health that goes far beyond the standard blood tests that currently exist.

How the first human genome was uncovered

The human genome contains about 3.2bn letters of DNA, which are split into 23 threads called chromosomes.

If it were possible to unravel all your DNA out into a long, thin line, it would reach the equivalent of nearly 70 trips from the Earth to the Sun and back.

The first map of the human genome took researchers 10 years to complete and cost a total of $2.7bn (£2.2bn). Today it can be done in a matter of minutes.

Climate change

By now we all know that planting more trees and plants is good for the planet: these super species suck up the carbon emissions in our atmosphere and help to clean up our air and soil. But evolutionary quirks mean that some plants are much better at doing that than others.

Now scientists can use gene editing tools to modify plants and trees so that they grow in a way that helps them to capture more CO2 from the Earth’s atmosphere. By looking at the species that do an expert job, researchers can determine which genes are responsible for their efficiency and encourage more plants to grow with those same genetic traits.

Experts are also sequencing the genomes of species below sea level to work out how they’re being affected by climate change. Take marine corals, for example: there’s a genetic trait that some of the species carry which helps them to resist warmer temperatures. If scientists can capture that gene and effectively bottle it, we can help coral reefs to defend themselves better against rising sea temperatures and prevent coral bleaching and reef die-off.

Raising the dead

Here’s where that woolly mammoth plan comes in. When the Harvard University biological engineer George Church first announced he wanted to revive the woolly mammoth, most people laughed. Mammoths became extinct about 10,000 years ago, after all. But there is method to his madness, he insists.

Research suggests that woolly mammoths played a key role in keeping their natural frozen ecosystem in check by trampling down arctic tundra and allowing permafrost to penetrate deep into the earth. That permafrost is now melting, but Church believes that reintroducing similar animals to Siberia could help to restore some of that permafrost – and therefore prevent the ice from melting.

Biological engineer George Church wants to revive the woolly mammoth (Photo: Jean-Marc Zaorsk, Getty Images)

His company, Colossal Biosciences, plans to edit the genes of the modern Asian elephant so that they more closely resemble those of their extinct, woolly cousins. The result will be a new breed of “Arctic elephant”, deployed to trample on snowy grasses to their hearts’ content.

Food security

In the same way we can edit plants to perform better carbon capture, we can also encourage grains and other food crops to become more resistant to drought and diseases, which we’ll need to do if we’re going to feed close to 10bn people living on the planet by 2050.

Genetic modification (GMO crops) has had its fair share of negative press in the past couple of decades, partly because of a general sense of distrust of its “unnatural” processes. But GM is already providing solutions to farming challenges and the resultant food shortages across the developing world, and last year, the UK government passed a law to allow genetic modification to be reintroduced in England.

The new law also allows scientists to experiment with editing crops, which means we can make food healthier and tastier – putting vitamin D into tomato plants, for example.

Monitoring diseases

Part of the reason we were able to find vaccines to combat Covid-19 so quickly was thanks to – you guessed it – genomic sequencing. Using patient test samples, scientists can map out each variant almost in real time, following the route of their spread across the country and using it to predict where new outbreaks might occur.

“When it comes to monitoring of infectious spread, genomic sequencing is a crucial tool,” says Sharon Peacock, executive director of the Covid-19 Genomics UK Consortium. “It’s not an end solution in its own right, but it’s a tool that allows us to understand what’s happening – it allows us to know exactly what we’re vaccinating against.”

Genomic sequencing was responsible for the quick turnaround of the Covid vaccine (Photo: Leon Neal, Getty)

Since January 2020, about 11.5m SARS-CoV-2 genomes have been sequenced and uploaded to GISAID, an open platform for sharing viral genomes used by scientists and health policymakers across the world. The UK alone sequences roughly 12 per cent of all its positive Covid-19 tests, and we’re already doing the same thing for other diseases like malaria and now monkeypox.

Creating superhumans?

Maybe one of the biggest possible changes to humanity afforded by genomics is the ability we have to genetically screen human embryos during IVF. By looking at the parents’ DNA and that of their embryos, scientists can accurately predict how healthy each baby will be, and its risk of carrying different diseases, even before the embryo is implanted.

We even have the tools to edit these embryos – although the subject is still a controversial one. To paraphrase Jurassic Park, just because we can doesn’t mean we should.

Genetic screening services are opening up in the US and soon the UK as well, but at the moment they only allow prospective parents to check an embryo for disease-carrying genes and not superficial things like hair and eye colour. But the line on “ethical” genetic screening is not always a clear one, and it’s possible that public perception of what’s right and wrong could change back and forth in the years to come as the technology progresses.

Whatever our feelings on genetic screening and the genetic editing of humans, plants and animals, it’s important that we get to grips with what it means for us as a society – because ultimately it will be up to us to determine how the science is used.

Rachael Pells is the author of ‘Genomics: How Genome Sequencing Will Change Our Lives’ (£8.99, Cornerstone), which is out now