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If you listen to the news, or read the paper, you may have noticed a new word creeping into your consciousness. “Genome” (pronounced jee-nohm)
is a word that is not going to go away, so let us explore its significance -- for today and for the future. Genome research has been going on for well over a decade, but we are just starting to see the ripples heading for our shore.
The word “genome” is defined as:
All the DNA contained in an organism or a cell, which includes both the chromosomes within the nucleus and the DNA in mitochondria -- or in simpler terms -- the genome of an organism is the totality of genes making up its hereditary constitution.
In 1990 the US Genome Project was created to map the human genome. The National Institutes of Health and the Department of Energy created the a center for genome research, the National Center for Genome Research. The goal of the project is to determine the exact location of all the genes (50,000 to 100,000) plus, the regulatory elements on their respective chromosomes and much more technical genetic information. The project has a price tag of about $3 billion and is due to be completed in the year 2003. There are scientist working together on an international basis to complete this work. Commercial groups are also racing to sequence all or part of the human genome.
An announcement made by researchers revealed that they had in fact mapped the entire sequence of 545 genes on human chromosome 22, in 1999. This particular chromosome has been linked to at least 35 disease. Among them are schizophrenia, some cancers and heart disease. The genetic sequence of chromosome 21 was completed in May 2000, and is involved with Downs syndrome.
The positive implications of the Genome Research Project are overwhelmingly promising regarding discoveries that will lead to the termination of certain diseases from the human experience. The possibilities of negative consequences are also being explored and the planners of the “US Human Genome Project" are addressing these p in a program called ELSI(the Ethical, Legal and Social Implications.)
Some of the problems that could arise might be: “How should this new genetic information be interpreted and used?” - “Who should use it?” - “How can people be protected from the harm that might result from its improper use?”
As with many controversial things is this world, the potential for good and evil coexists. Genome research has the possibility for ultimate good, or ultimate corruption.
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