Back in 2010, a geneticist Nathaniel Pearson said that Ozzy Osbourne had possessed gene variants that "we've never seen before".
Pearson sequenced the late rocker's genome, including variants with the potential to impact Osbourne's body. The late rocker's resilience for absorbing certain substances had caught the eye of Knome, Inc, a genomics company which began sequencing the "full Ozzy genome" in July 2010.
It's co founder Jorge Conde asked the question, "Why not Ozzy?". The company were reportedly keen to explore the genome of someone of such musical talent as Osbourne, with the chance to investigate if good genes had any impact on the rocker's ability to handle his "aggressive" lifestyle a keen pull factor for researchers.
The results of this sequencing by Knome, were discussed at a conference in San Diego that year, with Ozzy, Sharon and of course Pearson weighing in on what Osbourne's genes mean for the future of medicine.
While he was sceptical to begin to with, Ozzy Osbourne soon came round to the idea.
In the end, the key differences drawn from this study was what Osbourne's genes had to do with how he processes alcohol and illicit drugs. Genes which were connected to addiction, drugs and the absorption of marijuana, methamphetamines, and opiates all had variations in Osbourne. Such impacts had not been previously seen by too many Knome experts before.
"He had a change on the regulatory region of the ADH4 gene, a gene associated with alcoholism, that we've never seen before,", Conde said. "He has an increased predisposition for alcohol dependence of something like six times higher. He also had a slight increased risk for cocaine addiction, but he dismissed that. He said that if anyone has done as much cocaine he had, they would have been hooked".
While some found that there is a 2.6 times increased chance of hallucinations associated with using marijuana, Ozzy Osbourne said at that time that he would not notice, as he rarely used it without other drugs in his system.
It was discovered that the kryptonite of Ozzy Osbourne is a slow metaboliser of coffee, which means he would be more affected by coffee.
"Turns out that Ozzy's kryptonite is caffeine", Conde stated.
In fact, Ozzy Osbourne's nervous system and function were of particular interest to Conde and Pearson, considering the late singer's lifestyle.
"Here's a guy who's rocking heavy metal for decades and he can still hear," Conde explained. "It would be interesting to know if this gene may impact that. His Parkinsonian tremor -- it's hard to know if that is from his genes or from years of hard living".
"People thought that [Neanderthals] had no descendents today, but they do," Pearson said at the conference. "In east Asia and Europe, a lot of us have a little Neanderthal ancestry. We found a sliver of the genes in Ozzy. We also looked at [Knome's] founder, George Chruch, and he has about three times as much as Ozzy does".
To which Sharon Osbourne added: "I'd like to meet him".
In short, interpreting the gene variants still involves a lot of study and guesswork, despite the huge progress made by full human genome sequencing, which first began in 2003.
Conde said: "We can read the code, but it takes additional research to decipher what is means". Adding: "What interests me are people who have done something extraordinary with no clear reason as to why".
Geneticists do know which traits are associated with genes, but not how a mutation of that gene will affect someone. Sequencing can still show those who seem to display unique traits, including Osbourne's ability to remain relatively healthy, despite his somewhat cavalier lifestyle.
Geneticists hope to learn more about deviations in certain genes which create certain traits, as well as susceptibility to disease and reactions to substances.
Conde remarked: "What interests me are people who have done something extraordinary with no clear reason as to why".
TEMED is an annual conference which looks at increasing innovation in the medical realm "from personal health to public health, devices to design and Hollywood to the hospital".
Tributes have been paid to Osbourne, who passed away aged 76. See more here.
