Genetic Report

[Sirrus]

Report on Genetic 2004

 

 

It is hard now days to avoid the many murmurs and screams emanating from the stride made in the field of Genetics. The louder these reverberations will get as we get closer and closer to 2005 or 2006 deadlines, namely because those are the target years in which the human Genome project is to be completed. The expectation is, that data gathered from this project will solve human ailments from Cancer to Alzheimer, Obesity to Aging and much more. The current medical machinery and knowledge will be made, to be exactly as it is, rude, crude and out of tune. With the human program in hand, pharmaceutical drug companies will be able to make target drugs, a sort of laser-guided weapons, which will target the appropriate gene causing the ailment. Gene therapy a field quickly taking shape will provide therapies for those born with hereditary genetic disorders. Using engineered viral vectors, of viruses known to insert their genes into their host, gene-therapist will place, replace or augment the defective gene. People with blood born disorders will have their blood removed, genetically cured and reconstituted. Organ transplant will now get more efficient when a persons own cells will be made to revert back to time of pre-birth then reprogrammed to produce a desired organ, eliminating patient organ rejection. More importantly for the our fellow nomads, the question of our origin, Arab or African will be finally put to rest, as the book of human genome will elucidate the unwritten history of man. That is not to say all this will be achieved in the next two years, on the contrary, the deadline is just the end of the reading phase, the digestion and utilization phase will have to follow, and they are scheduled to take anywhere between 15 – 50 years.

 

The public at large is more frightened of genetics than anything else, this is namely due to several mistakes on the part of scientist and media alike. Lets begin by first stating that CLONING is NOT genetics, merely improvement in vitro fertilization, a field of medicine that predates genetics. The cloning of human being, although viable as the studies have shown is useless. Cloning does not entail creation, in fact all it amounts to, is transferring the entire genetic code from one cell to a female unfertilized egg devoid of genetic coding. Then using the current method of in vitro fertilization available at your neighborhood sperm bank, to have a woman carry it for 9 months and give birth to a twin of the donor person, albeit of much younger age. Having a child the natural way is much more appealing, if you ask me. The only area where cloning might be useful is animal husbandry, where cows, or in this case camels that can produce the optimum milk or meat need to be cloned. As human history has shown, every minute an ***** is born and it will not come as a surprised, if we get another Ralian group claiming human cloning.

 

Other downfalls of genetics, which frightens the public and it rightly should is, eugenics, selection of persons based on their genetic make up. Studies have shown each one of us has genetic pitfalls, no one can claim genetic perfection, but in the future, companies will be able to check your genetic repertoire and determine if you will cost them more than you will get them, health wise. Parent will be able to have a child tested in the womb and determine if he or she carries genetic abnormalities that will make him or her a special child and so make decision right there. Racially disturbed individuals of Micheal Jackson mindset will be able to make their genes or that of their offspring changed to suite their desire. More frightening, the military machine will now be able to target any one using their genetic program. In all the harm weights as much as the benefits and so people need to know both to make judgment on the case.

 

For references I suggest the following sites, movie and books.

 

Site:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/

http://www.celera.com/

http://www.i-sis.org.uk/ifg99.php

 

Movie:

(1997) Gattaca – Ethan Hawke & Uma Thurman

 

Books:

Nicholas Wade – “Book of Genetics”

[nervous-chic]

das interesting..but about da part where u say people can pick different aspects of the fetus looking at the genetic makeup of their mate, they want to create da perfect baby...i believe that sum women who want to get invetro fertilizations from sperm banks can look at the sperm's, imean sperm donors background and check out their looks, IQ and health levels so the baby will not end up lookin screwed..i don't know, i remember hearing dis in one of my psych classes...it is an expensive process, but some women can take dat path...

salaam

[Vanquish_V12]

Genetics, i love it. just like all sciences it has potential to do both harm or good, much like da splitting of da atom n maybe perhaps one day fission.

 

imagine being able to cure diabetes, alkaptonuria, mulitiple scloresis, heart disease, for that matter any metabolic disease simply with little gene therapy, no chemotherapy or toxic drungs. however, we are far from dat point although the human genome has completely been sequenced, we only know 10% of da 30000 human genes coded for and without knowing the funtion of the polypeptides they code for is like having a book but not knowing how to read it.

 

my view on this is simple, we need tight control on dis kinda of research the reasons are quite obvious, thankfully because of da technology and level of expertise required not everybody is able to manipulate cells, and those that are capable should have a short leash.

 

as far as eugenics type of use, this is unethical, genetics dirty side as i like to call it. however, any good geneticist knows although our genes give us the framework dat we are built on, it is the environment we live in dats da major player, these were simply proven in monozygotic twin experiments (identical twins).

and just because u can select fo a baby whose got not metabolic malfunctions does not gaurentee disease free life, cuz they are still prone to genetic mutation and hence can get cancer, and since life style is da main cause of many disease our genes are not really dat big of shield.

 

peez.

[Sirrus]

Nervous-chic

 

 

I see your nervousness in the issue, what you are referring to is called, sexual selection. It occurs everyday, both in sperms banks and believe it or not in real life. Given that a woman will contribute 50% of her genes to her baby, she requires the other 50% to be of equal or higher quality, same applies for male sexual selection. In actual life, we use physical and conversational queues to determine background, IQ and health levels. Each one of those factors has genetic basis and its done unconsciously. Physical health and IQ, definitely indicate good genes. In sperm banks you can do this through research, in real life this is done through lengthy courtship process (shukansi). In the future perhaps genetic screening and or in vitro compilation will put an end to this. The only risk are genes are probabilistic in nature, rather than deterministic, changing one gene might create more problems than say provide lighter skin.

 

 

Vanquish_V12

 

 

Scary isn’t it, 30,000 genes to code for the complexity of such beings as humans, few thousands more than say drosophilae (fruit fly). By the way that number was proposed by Dr. Venter of Celera and Consortium of academic laboratories, I tend to agree with Dr. Haseltine of HGS (human genome science) the number of genes should lie somewhere between 100,000 to 120,000. The problem is, most of the genes are probabilistic in nature and not deterministic, reacting as it were to environmental queues. As I have already answered Nervous-chic, changing one gene might be more problematic than it’s worth.

[Vanquish_V12]

scary yea, but also fascinating. just like plastics owned the 60s n 70s biotech will own most of this century, we r just gettin started wit DNA n proteins, we havent even unlocked their language yet. just imagine. it will effect they way we do everythang, food production, warfare, medicine, etc...