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> February 4, 2000:
Hour Two: Human Genome Project/Gene Therapy Update
Molecular biologists are swiftly approaching being able to crack the entire human genetic code. Scientists involved in the government-funded Human Genome Project recently announced that they have sequenced about a third of the estimated 3.5 billion base pairs making up human DNA, and are on track to have a rough draft of the entire genome by this spring. Celera Genomics, a competing privately funded venture run by J. Craig Venter, revealed recently that they have sequenced 90% of the chemical pairs in the genome -- although they aren't sure yet how all the pieces of the genome that they have sequenced fit together.
This comes on the heels of the announcement in December of the mapping of all the genes on an entire human chromosome, chromosome 22. Chromosome 22 is the second smallest of the human chromosomes, but the work, the first of its kind, is still an impressive accomplishment.
However, this week came a reminder of just how little we understand about the workings of the human genome. In testimony before a Senate committee looking into the death of Jesse Gelsinger, a young man participating in a gene therapy trial at the University of Pennsylvania, researchers and regulators from the National Institutes of Health revealed that gene therapy trials may have been responsible for many other deaths as well.
In this hour of Science Friday, we'll get an update on the race to understand the human genetic code, and what it means for scientists, doctors, and ordinary people.
Guests:
Inder Verma
American Cancer Society Professor, Laboratory of Genetics
Salk Institute for Biological Studies
La Jolla, California
Matt Ridley
Author, "Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters" (Harper Collins, 2000)
Newcastle, England
Bruce Roe
George Lynn Cross Research Professor, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Director, Advanced Center for Genome Technology
University of Oklahoma
Norman, Oklahoma
Books/Articles Discussed:
Related Links:
Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man
National Human Genome Research Institute
Celera Genomics
Science Friday:Gene Therapy
American Society for Gene Therapy
Univ. of Pennsylvania- Institute for Human Gene Therapy
Scientific American: Explorations: Gene Therapy: 10/96
NIH - Office of Recombinant DNA Activities
- This segment produced by:
Karin Vergoth
Web producer:
Charles Bergquist |