 Imagine your local hospital 20 years from today as you sign in, you hand over a card containing your very own genome profile. I believe that we come to a day where we all have our genome just like we have our driver's license and it's not going to evoke the kind of social fears that we currently have about having that kind of information. As the cost of sequencing tumbles, genetic screenings are likely to become a routine part of health care. We will arrive at a juncture in the next 10 or 20 years where newborns will have a certain suite of genes that are sequenced at birth. When one is in their 20s, the genes that now become applicable and important to know about in adulthood will be sequenced. And when we're older, another set of genes will be sequenced. In the same way that X-rays and MRIs completely transform the diagnosis and treatment of disease, genomics promises to usher in a new kind of medicine. I think for a lot of people, genetic testing can help explain medical conditions that they've been struggling with their entire lives. I think for some people it can lead to better treatments or more effective therapies. For some people, genetic testing can provide them information that could lead to early detection or even prevention of certain conditions. Genomic medicine holds out particular hope for those affected by rare hereditary disorders like sickle cell anemia and Huntington's disease. Huntington's researchers think they are close to finding a way to turn off the code that causes the disease. So the tools to shut things down and the knowledge of where to do it, that's completely unique. We've entered a new era where genomic information can be derived from a simple swab of saliva. Tens of thousands of people are paying fees to private companies to find out hidden truths about their family trees. But our DNA is only one aspect of our identity. It's very important to realize DNA isn't your destiny. Who you marry, where you live, how you're going to die. It's not written in your DNA. This is not some sort of astrology kind of process. Scientists have come a long way from the fuzzy X-ray images of DNA taken in 1952 to 60 years later in 2012 when the very first electron microscope image of DNA was captured. But we have even further to go before we completely, if ever, understand how DNA works and the role it plays in making us, us.