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Our genome is a text: a book from the past and a handbook for the future. We have been able for some years to know what’s written in the genome, or better we know the letters (the genes) but are quite unsure of their syntax (how each gene interacts with the others and reacts to what comes from the outside).

That’s why we know if a child will have cystic fibrosis, as it depends on just one gene, but we do not know if he or she will develop Parkinson Syndrome or cancer, as they are complex diseases and depend on thousands of genes. This is the most actual challenge geneticists have to face nowadays.


Guido Barbujani worked at the State University of New York and at London, Padua and Bologna Universities. Now he teaches Genetics at Ferrara University. He is also a novelist and an essayist.

Bompiani also published Tutto il resto è provvisorio, his latest novel, and L’invenzione delle razze, his bestselling essay on how human races have no scientific base.

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