Human beings have turned out to be "much more complex" than genetic machinery, an expert will tell doctors today.
Dr Linn Gertz will set out current understanding of the human genome in a lecture to 1,500 doctors attending the Royal College of GPs annual conference in Liverpool, UK.
Dr Gertz, of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, says that research since the human genome was sequenced in 2001 – the HUGO project – has shown that feelings such as neglect, hope and fear affect people biologically, right down to the way genes work.
She says: "When the Humane Genome was sequenced (HUGO project) in 2001, it was widely claimed that both the causes and the cures of the major (non-communicable) human diseases were to be found in the DNA as such.
“Today, only a decade later, we are starting to realise that things are much more complex than HUGO medicine predicted.
"With the aid of hi-tech science, researchers clearly demonstrate that the human body is indeed not a genetically determined machine; the human biology is "saturated" with experience, both mental and physical.
"With the same hi-tech methods, we are also starting to rediscover the inherent healing power of good human relationships."
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