2010 National DNA Day Online Chatroom Transcript

This is just one question from an archive of the National DNA Day Moderated Chat held in April 2010. The NHGRI Director and many genomics experts from across NHGRI took questions from students, teachers and the general public on topics ranging from basic genomic research, to the genetic basis of disease, to ethical questions about genetic privacy.


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can you take DNA from an animal and put it into a human?
     David Bodine, M.D., Ph.D.: I investigate the genetics of pluripotent hematopoietic stem cells (PHSCs) to improve the effectiveness of bone marrow transplantation and to find better ways to use these unique cells for gene replacement therapy. Yes you can, using gene transfer technology. I doubt that it ever will happen though. Often DNA from another animal would make a protein that would be recognized as foreign and eliminated. There are good examples of this when human genes are put into mice.
East Haven High School in CT (10th grade student)


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