Available
in PDF
In this issue...
Genome Project
U.S.
HGP on Fast Track
DOE
Joint Genome Institute Exceeds Goal
New
5-Year Goals
Faster
Sequencing with BACs
Mapping
with STCs and STSs
Availability
of BAC Clones and STC Data
BAC
Related Websites
BAC
Resource Success Story
Scientists
Hunt SNPs for Variation, Disease
Who's
Sequencing the Human Genome?
Genomics
Progress in Science
EMSL
Promotes Remote Access to Instrumentation
Second
Private-Sector Sequencing Project
GeneMap'98
In the News
Team
Delivers C. elegans Sequence
Why
Sequence Entire Genomes? Worm's Eye View
Embnet.news on
Web
European
Biotech Program
DOE
BER Research Update
Hollaender
Fellows Named
SBIR
1998 Human Genome Awards Announced
Mouse
Resources
Mouse
Consortium for Functional Genomics
Chlamydia Genome
Analysis
HUGO
Merges Offices, Web Sites
Microbial Genomics
Superbug Deinococcus
radiodurans
Unfinished
Microbial Genomes Searchable
TIGR
Releases Chlorobium tepidum Sequence
DOE
MGP Abstracts Online
Microbial
TV Series
Ethical, Legal, and Social Issues
and Educational Resources
Cambridge
ELSI Symposium
Eric
Lander, Genetics in the 21st Century
Mark
Rothstein, Genetic Privacy
James
Wilson, Gene Therapy Present & Future
LeRoy
Walters, Ethical Issues in Gene Therapy
DNA
Files on NPR, Internet
Innovative
Biotechnology Curriculum
Short
Course for Biology Teachers
Microbial
TV Series
Proteomics
Looking
at Proteins to Understand Expression
2-DGE: Protein
Visualization, Modification
Tool
for Protein Analysis
TREMBL
Release 6
R&D
100 Award Goes to LANL's SOLVE
NIH
Awards Proteomics Grant to Axys
E.
coli Proteome Database
Genetics in Medicine
National
Organization for Rare Disorders
Translation
of Genetics to Medicine: New Website
Cancer
Genetics Web Site
HuGem
Website Offers Education in New Genetics
Calculation
of Genetic Risks 2nd Edition
New Genetics
Manual Offered
Mutation
Research Genomics Online
Informatics
GDB
Database Operations Restored
In
Silico Biology: Bioinformatics Journal
Computational
Methods Book Available
Bioinformatics
Guide
BioToolKit
Gene-Finding
Programs at Sanger
New
Sequin Version
Tandem
Repeat Tool
Sequence
Viewer
SmithKline
Licenses Gene Logic Software
Influenza
Database at LANL
TRANSFAC
Database
p53
Mutation Database
TBASE
at Jackson Laboratory
Intein
Database on Web
System
Identifies Polymorphisms
Web, Other Resources, Publications
1999
Oakland Workshop Website
Launchpad
to Human Chromosomes
Nature
Genetics Supplement
Funding
DOE
Office of Science Grants and Contracts
NHGRI
National Service Award Fellowships
NCI
Technologies for Molecular Analysis
NIH:
Netork for Large-Scale Mouse Sequencing
NHGRI:
Genomic Technology Development
US
Genome Research Funding
Meeting Calendars & Acronyms
Genome
and Biotechnology Meetings
Training
Courses and Workshops
Acronyms
HGN archives
and subscriptions
HGP
Information home
|
"Genetics in the 21st Century"
Eric Lander
Whitehead Institute of Biomedical Research
According to Eric Lander, "People today are now living through the most stunning information revolution, unlike anything before in the history of science." He compared its importance to the chemist Mendeleev's critical observation around 1869 that all the elements of matter could be organized in a very simple table. With this discovery, Mendeleev laid the foundations for the chemical industry and for much of chemistry in the 20th century. The biological sciences and industry are now experiencing the same thing, Lander stated. Instead of a periodic table, the 100,000 human genes constitute a finite list that will be complete in the near future. This list will help biologists and scientists understand the tremendous diversity of the human race and determine the causes of disease.
People are variable, Lander said, and every possible DNA sequence and DNA change that can exist probably does exist somewhere in the world. On the other hand, he continued, there are only two or three common variants of most human genes. If two people were selected at random from the audience and a particular gene were sequenced from each, the odds are one in two or one in three that the two sequences of the coding regions would be identical. This reflects the fact that the human race descended from a small population in Africa only 10,000 generations ago or about 200,000 years. Small populations have relatively few variants, and the mutation rate of one in a billion bases is so low that 95% of all the genes in the audience have not undergone a single mutation in all those years. Even though any two human chromosomes are nearly identical, the little differences in DNA sequence can be used to trace the inheritance pattern of chromosomes and localize particular genes to particular subregions. Finding genes in this manner requires good genetic, physical, and sequence maps. The Human Genome Project has been making very good progress in these three tasks, Lander said; the genetic maps are essentially finished, and more than 97% of the genome is well covered in physical maps that can be used to isolate disease genes. Sequencing is heating up, with about 10% of the sequence expected to be finished by the end of 1998.
The process of producing 3 billion letters of information (the DNA base sequences) requires extraordinary automation and cooperation around the world. Bizarre machines are being built, Lander said as he showed a picture of a machine at Whitehead nicknamed the Genomatron, which can set up 100,000 PCR reactions in an hour. This reflects a 1000- to 10,000-fold increase in capabilities over only 4 or 5 years ago, when a student might set up 10 to 100 reactions in an hour.
What are we making of this information revolution? he asked. How far have we come toward understanding the remarkable differences among humans, the basis of different traits? Finding gene associations for rare Mendelian disorders like cystic fibrosis or Huntington's disease is a piece of cake these days, Lander stated. Over 1000 relatively rare disorders already have been mapped to specific chromosomal regions --almost all of them within the last 10 years, and all within the last 14 years. About 140 have been specifically isolated and cloned.
For common diseases, the challenge has been to tease apart the contributions of multiple genes associated with complex conditions. The most progress has been made by looking for rare Mendelian subtypes, but there are as yet no good published subtypes for asthma, schizophrenia, and bipolar disease, for example.
Human genetics eventually may come down to just one very large table of variants or traits common to the population. People already are talking about collecting all the roughly 300,000 variants (3 for each of the 100,000 genes) and genotyping everybody. This is what genetics may look like in the 21st century, Lander continued.
He showed some examples of extreme claims, particularly those in supermarket tabloids, regarding genes and how they determine what kind of work a person may do, whom he will marry, or how much money she will earn. As the audience laughed, Lander pointed out that if the subject were Alzheimer's disease or thrill seeking, it's not clear where the public would draw the line regarding behavior or other traits that might be explained by genes.
"We have to make the advantages of this genetic revolution available for biomedical research and yet still fight what I think is the danger of a naive biological determinism and the consequences that could have for society. We need a different model. The right model, for me, is captured on a poster [showing two people] I'm very fond of from the Musée de L'Homme in Paris, from an exhibit they had some years ago: 'Tous parents, tous differents.' It can be translated two ways: 'All the same, all different,' or 'all related, all different.'"
Genetic variations influence our lives, he concluded, but they don't constrain us, nor do they shape us in the choices we can make as a society. What has happened so far in the information revolution will seem like nothing when compared to what will flow from the sluice gates of human genetics projects around the world over the next decade or so. We must explore "how to manage the information," Lander said, "and the choices and consequences of what science has to offer."
[Eric Lander]
Return toCambridge Symposium introductory article
The electronic form of the newsletter may be cited in the following style:
Human Genome Program, U.S. Department of Energy, Human Genome News (v10n1-2).
Return to Top of Page
Acronym List
|