Imagine going to hospital and plugging in an information device that reveals your own genome sequence, allowing doctors to plan a course of treatment just for your unique genetic make-up.

Experts say it will happen in our lifetime.

The latest step in so-called personalized medicine is a research project that would allow doctors to determine whether a transplant patient is rejecting a new organ with a simple blood test.

A team of researchers, funded by Genome B.C., has discovered that blood from heart and kidney transplant patients has genetic indicators that will diagnose and predict acute organ rejection.

Dr. Bruce McManus, with the Prevention of Organ Failure Centre of Excellence, said previous studies of patients in Vancouver have already validated the test.

A team will now go to multiple sites across Canada to further evaluate the tests and gather enough data for approval from Health Canada and U.S. and European health agencies.

"Then we'll be at a point where this could become a standard laboratory test... used across this country and around the world," McManus said Tuesday.

Biopsy can be painful

Currently, the only way to confirm transplant rejection is with a biopsy, which can be painful for the patient and expensive for the medical system.

In the first year of a transplant, patients often need up to 16 biopsies, in which doctors insert a device down the veins of the neck and snip off a tiny piece of the heart tissue.

Each biopsy procedure can cost between $5,000 and $10,000.

Sarah Johnston had a heart transplant four years ago and said the biopsies are not a "pleasant experience."

"The thought that other people might not have to have biopsies, they could just have a simple blood test, is really inspiring," said the 27-year-old mother of three.

Andrew Ignaszewski, division head of cardiology at St. Paul's Hospital in Vancouver, told a forum the genomic work is terribly important.

"It means the potential for newfound comfort for the patient. And a more immediate, precise and inexpensive test to manage our patient."

He said the tests would also guide doctors on the drugs they prescribe that suppress a transplant patient's immune system.

The blood test is one of 60 projects funded by Genome B.C. in areas of health, forestry, fisheries, bioenergy agriculture and the environment.

Human genetic blueprint

The Human Genome Project to map out the genetic blueprint of a human started just nine years ago and cost about $3 billion.

Alan Winter, president of Genome B.C., said the research is finally leading to a better understanding about disease.

He said gene sequencing is the next stage in medicine, allowing for genetic understanding of each person's makeup.

Winter said soon a person could walk into a hospital carrying a flashcard with his genome sequence and get better heath care.

"You plug that in and they say 'Well, given these 32 markers you've got, we think this drug would be better.' "

The cost of gene sequencing a human has come way down from the original $3 billion to about $50,000.

Winter predicts that cost will fall even further to about $1,000 per person over about six years.

"Now it's getting to the point that it's like a diagnostic test," Winter said.

"It's not that you want to use the human genome for everything. But it's the fact that it gives you some personal view about what should happen to you if you have treatment."