Actress Glenn Close Has Genome Mapped

(March 11) -- Glenn Close has played a manipulative aristocrat, a Dalmatian-skinning mastermind and is now best known as a high-stakes litigator. She writes a blog about celebrity dogs, is on her third marriage and roots for the New York Mets.

That's probably more than you'd care to know about Glenn Close, but scientists now know a whole lot more than that: The actress has become the first identified woman to have her entire genomic sequence decoded.

Illumina Inc., a San Diego-based genetic analysis firm, announced the news this morning.

"We are very excited to work with Glenn Close to produce the first named female sequence," Jay Flatley, president and CEO of Illumina, said in a statement. "We are entering a new era in genomic health where information from an individual's genome will increasingly inform lifestyle decisions and ultimately assist with health management."

Close's genome shared a 95 percent similarity with genomes that have already been fully mapped. It also offered up 379,000 new DNA variations, called SNPs, for researchers to analyze.

Bipolar disorder and schizophrenia both run in Close's family. She's already founded an advocacy nonprofit, BringChange2Mind, that promotes mental health research, and she agreed to the genetic sequencing in an effort to boost research into the genetic roots of mental illness.

Sadly for devoted fans, Illumina didn't release additional information about the findings from Close's genomic map. But it does plan to market personal genomic mapping services, complete with a genetic counselor, physician and data analysts to help clients interpret their decoded DNA.

Indeed, Close might soon be joined by other celebrities with extra money to burn: Genomic sequencing at Illumina's lab costs $48,000 and takes two months to complete. That's a paltry sum compared with what it cost to map the first human genome in 2003: a tidy $500 million.

Close is the first actress on the list, but she's the eighth person added to the roster of full genomic sequences this week -- bringing the number of people who've had the analysis to 20.

Two other studies, released Wednesday, were the first to use genetic sequencing to pinpoint the causes of inherited diseases. The first used the genomic maps of its lead researcher, James Lupski, and his three siblings to identify the DNA behind Lupski's inherited disease, called Charcot-Marie-Tooth syndrome. The second sequenced the genes of a family of four who suffer from two recessive genetic ailments.