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http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/genome/debate.html

“We simply do not have enough genes for this idea of biological determinism to be right,” asserted Craig Venter, president of Celera Genomics, one of the two teams that cracked the human genome last February. Indeed, Venter has wasted little time in playing down the importance of the genes he has catalogued. He cites the example of colon cancer, which is often associated with a defective “colon cancer” gene. Even though some patients carry this mutated gene in every cell, the cancer only occurs in the colon because it is triggered by toxins secreted by bacteria in the gut. Cancer, argues Venter, is an environmental disease. Strong support for this viewpoint appeared last year in the New England Journal of Medicine. Researchers in Scandinavia studying 45,000 pairs of twins concluded that cancer is largely caused by environmental rather than inherited factors, a surprising conclusion after a decade of headlines touting the discovery of the “breast cancer gene,” the “colon cancer gene,” and many more.

[Venter actually used his own cells during the billion$ sequencing of the genome, and as a consequence started taking some prevention measures for other possible future illnesses supposedly telegraphed in his own genes. Nice work if you can get it.]