THE HUMAN GENOME!

From The Economist - June 27 - 2020

Graphic detail Genomic 

Dawn of an era

The Human Genome Project has transformed biology and medicine

Twenty years ago, on June 26th 2000, those running the public Human Genome Project and its private-sector shadow, a firm called Celera Genomics, decided to declare victory. In a simultaneous breasting of the tape, each published a "working draft" of the genome. The broker, Bill Clinton, hosted the chief scientists at the White House. Hyperbolic comparisons were made to the Apollo project to land people on the Moon.

Unlike Apollo, though, this announcement marked a beginning rather than an end. Genomics is now so embedded in biology that it is hard to recall what things were like before it. Those first human sequences cost billions of dollars to obtain. Today, with the advent of new technologies, a full sequence costs about $200, and less detailed versions are cheaper still. It is as if, to use Apollo as the analogy, regular shuttles to the Moon had become available at prices an average family in the West could afford—and the more adventurous might now be considering a trip to Mars.

Researchers with a hypothesis to test can, for instance, turn to biobanks containing details of tens or hundreds of thousands of people—their medical records, education, employment and, crucially, data about their genomes. 

Private companies will also sequence genomes to varying standards, for a suitable price. It is probably the case, and if not, it soon will be, that more than 1m human genomes have been sequenced by one method or another.

Genomics also helps non-medical biology. Many non-human species, including crops and domestic animals, have had their genomes sequenced. Though tinkering directly with the genes of organisms that end up on people's plates still makes some a bit queasy, that is increasingly unnecessary. Genomic knowledge can now be used to speed up selective breeding, without the need for genetic engineering.

At the other end of the scientific spectrum, what can be done for Homo sapiens can be done, using dna from fossils, for other (now extinct) species of human being: the Neanderthals and Denisovans. There is a possible practical interest even here. Sequencing shows that these species once interbred with Homo sapiens. It also suggests that the traces of that interbreeding which remain may help the recipient to fight off infections, by combating viruses and boosting the immune system. ■

THE  TRUTH  IS  THE  SO-CALLED  DIVISION  OF  NEANDERTHALS,  DENISOVANS,  AND  HOMO  SAPIENS,  WERE  ALL  PART  OF  THE  HUMAN  RACE.

THE  STUDY  OF  GENETICS  [I  HAVE  24  HALF  HOUR  LECTURES  FROM  A  PhD  GUY]  SHOULD  BLOW  YOUR  MIND,  AND  TESTIFY  TO  YOU  WE  HUMANS  WERE  CREATED  BY  AN  ALL  POWERFUL  GOD;  THE  SAME  GOD  THAT  CREATED  THIS  EARTH  AND  ALL  THINGS  UPON  IT;  THE  SAME  GOD  WHO  CREATED  THE  UNIVERSE,  THAT  IS  ALSO  MIND-BLOWING [I  HAVE  MANY  DVDs  ON  THE  UNIVERSE].

IT  IS  MORE  THAN  INTERESTING  THAT  MOST  OF  SCIENTISTS  ADMIT  THAT  THERE  WAS  A  TIME  WHEN  THE  UNIVERSE  DID  NOT  EXIST.  THEY  SAY  IT  BEGAN  WITH  A  “BIG  BANG”—— IT  IS  MORE  THAN  INTERESTING  FOR  THE  HOLY  BIBLE  TEACHES  THE  UNIVERSE  CAME  INTO  BEING  OUT  OF  NOTHING.  MAYBE  NOT  WITH  A  BIG  BANG  PER SE  BUT  THE  PHYSICAL  UNIVERSE  DID  NOT  EXIST,  BUT  DID  COME  INTO  BEING  AT  SOME  POINT  IN  PAST  ETERNITY.

Keith Hunt