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Human Genome - Update
A little over a year ago, a group of researchers announced that they had successfully decoded a complete human chromosome. It was chromosome number 22, one of the smaller ones.
Since then, this international team of scientists has completed the decoding of the entire human genome – all 24 of the chromosomes. These results were published last recently in two different scientific journals – NATURE, and SCIENCE.
Yes, we now have the book of life, but we don’t know how to read it – YET. The most obvious goal of decoding this human genome is to improve HUMAN HEALTH. So, where are they in this effort? Well, I don’t know, but I will give you a very brief interpretation of what I think is happening here – Leibert’s Biology 101.
One of their findings, as I see it, is that there are fewer genes in the Human Genome then scientists previously thought. Today, the estimated number is now between 30,000 and 40,000 genes – about half of earlier projections of even five years ago.
When the A’s, C’s, T’s and G’s of the DNA code get into the right combination, they apparently define a specific amino acid. There are 20 or so different amino acids essential to human life -- BUT they mix to define about 250,000 different proteins. Our GENES are supposed to be controlling our proteins – as to what type, what amount, when, where, and all that stuff.
The challenge of the Human Genome Project was and still is -- what protein does what, how can we exactly test for it, and only IT, and how can we correct it when it is wrong – whatever IT is.
Yes, first, how do we know what is wrong, and second, how do we fix it if it is wrong. They go together and that is the promise of all of this scientific effort.
Peter Leibert, Editor
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