2011 National DNA Day Online Chatroom Transcript

This is just one question from an archive of the National DNA Day Moderated Chat held in April 2011. 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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I once read a book called "My Sister's Keeper" by Jodi Picoult. The book focused on a girl with cancer, and her parents created a "designer" child, making all of the girl's traits the exact same in her sister's, so that when her sister needed a transplant, transfusion, or whatever was needed, they could use the sister. Have you ever heard of something like this? Is it even possible?
     Heather A. Junkins, M.S.: I currently work in the Office of Population Genomics on a variety of projects that aim to promote the application of genomic technologies to population-based studies.ý Included in the portfolio are projects that are developing standard phenotype and exposure measures for genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and using well-characterized cohorts to follow-up on putative casual variants.ý I'm also the curator for the NHGRI GWAS Catalog. Great question. Siblings share 50% of their DNA. The idea of creating "designer" children is controversial and needs further examination. If you would like to read more about this, there is a good article on the Wall Street Journal website titled, "A Baby, Please. Blond, Freckles -- Hold the Colic."
Peru High School in IN (11th grade student)

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