It truly is incredible! The cost of sequencing one's genome is only getting lower (like this company that sequences it for $999 >> https://www.veritasgenetics.com/myGenome) and the possibilities that this brings to designing custom tailored interventions is something we have never seen before.

I'm currently involved in some synthetic biology research and I still can't believe that we are getting to the point where hijacking the very machinery of cells and other living organisms to do things we want them to do like say act as biological sensors for a disease or have them synthesize and deliver compounds on their own could become as commonplace as taking a pill.

We are still a ways off, but we are getting there fast and like you say, it seems that outside of academia/the medical field not many see the impact this sort of tech is going to have.