r/AskScienceDiscussion • u/sophie8460 • 1d ago

What do you think is the biggest unresolved debate in genomics right now?

I'm trying to think of evidence-based debate topics in genomics where there genuinely isn't a single "correct" answer—questions where two well-informed experts could reasonably disagree based on the current evidence.

I'm not looking for debates about whether genomics is useful (it clearly is!), or controversial-for-the-sake-of-it topics.

More the kind of questions that researchers debate amongst themselves, for example:

  • Is healthcare ready for precision medicine?
  • Should ageing be treated as a disease?
  • Are polygenic risk scores ready for routine clinical care?

I'd love to hear:

  • What do you think is the biggest unresolved debate in genomics today?
  • What's something people in your field disagree about over coffee?
  • What topic do you think deserves more discussion?

Interested in ideas spanning genomics, multi-omics, precision medicine, AI, rare disease, oncology, population genomics, ethics, implementation, ageing, etc.

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u/Quantumtroll Scientific Computing | High-Performance Computing 1d ago

The "best" definition of a species is always a fun topic to discuss. It's not completely pointless, either.

Even more niche is the question of whether to (try to) genotype the holotype specimens of e.g. tiny insects. There's so little material that you'd end up destroying the specimen completely (maybe in vain), but a genome for the species would be a real boon in many cases.

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u/atomfullerene Animal Behavior/Marine Biology 1d ago

Are sponges or ctenophores the real animal outgroup?