Kuwait's War on ISIS and DNA

DNA testing and genomics is now so prevalent there are national genotyping platforms. Iceland became the first country in history to sequence the genomes of its population. Other countries are lining up.

The Faroe Islands, an autonomous region of Denmark, is sequencing its population of 50k. GenomeDenmark released its first 30 reference genomes. The Genome of the Netherlands project published a reference genome for the Dutch based on 750 genomes from two-parent-one child ‘trios’. Genomic England is working on a 100k genomes project. The US is interpreting a million genomes as part of Obama’s precision medicine initiative. The Korean Genome project aims to sequence all 50 million living Koreans. Yet more countries are sequencing to unravel the secrets of ancestry, such as Wales’s DNA Wales initiative. These national programmes are further complemented by the Personal Genome Project Global Network, now covering the US, UK, Canada and Austria.

Now Kuwait is changing the playing field. In early July, just days after the deadly Imam Sadiq mosque bombing claimed by ISIS, Kuwait ruled to instate...