The father of modern genetics predicted yesterday that genetic profiles will be used to diagnose illnesses within a decade.

Professor James Watson, one of the researchers who discovered the double helix structure of DNA, said that patients with mental illnesses and cancers would be the first to benefit.

The process of sequencing the genome, or the collection of genetic material, costs about £500,000, but Professor Watson predicted that this would decrease to £500 by 2017. Once costs have been reduced, and more of the genes that are associated with the onset of diseases have been pin-pointed, it would be realistic to expect a patient’s genome to be sequenced before drug treatment started, he said.

Progress was so fast that it was only a matter of years before researchers would be able to “see the disease” when looking at a genetic profile.

Professor Watson predicted the revolution in diagnostic genetics at an event to mark the opening today of the Wellcome Collection, a science-based museum, in London.

He said that within a decade it would be routine to assess patients’ genomes before offering them any drugs. “In ten years we shouldn’t treat a cancer until you know what’s wrong with your DNA,” he said. Such techniques would be especially useful for mental conditions in children because the genome would reveal whether autism, schizophrenia or other causes were the root of a problem.

Making gene sequences easily available would raise ethical issues, he said, but he insisted that the advantages would outweigh the problems caused.

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