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Deciphering Human Genetics

BY AWAKE! CORRESPONDENT IN BRITAIN

“BIOLOGY’S first ‘big science’ project,” sixth of “the seven wonders of the modern world”​—both of these are descriptions of the Human Genome Project, an international attempt to decipher you! What is a genome? It is the sum total of your genetic makeup, one part inherited from your father and the other part from your mother but now uniquely yours.

Geneticists Sir Walter Bodmer and Robin McKie dub the genome project “the Book of Man.” But reading it is no simple task. “A more important set of instruction books will never be found by human beings,” claims James Watson, one of the scientists credited with discovering the structure of the now famous DNA molecule. “When finally interpreted,” he says, “the genetic messages encoded within our DNA molecules will provide the ultimate answers to the chemical underpinnings of human existence.”

As with any big and expensive science project, the Human Genome Project has both believers and skeptics. “The Genome Project could be the ultimate violation of privacy,” warns science writer Joel Davis, “or it could be an extraordinary doorway to renewed life, to health, to healing.” But whatever it achieves, he believes that “it will utterly change the field of genetics” and that “it may totally reshape the nature of Homo sapiens.” Back in 1989, George Cahill, a vice president at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, was positive. “It’s going to tell us everything,” he said. “Evolution, disease, everything will be based on what’s in that magnificent tape called DNA.”

A Mammoth Task

In 1988 an international group of scientists set up HUGO (Human Genome Organization) to coordinate the work of genome researchers in participating countries. With a budget of some $3.5 billion, HUGO channels their results into a computer data base. Although computers now read thousands of its components every day, the genome is so complex that scientists do not expect to complete its decoding until sometime in the 21st century. Scientific American magazine estimates that if the genome were published in book form, it would take “a third of a lifetime” to read it through.

After much debate scientists decided on the following strategy. First, they intend to map the genome to locate the position of the 100,000 genes. Next, by a process known as sequencing the genome, they hope to discover the order of the building blocks that make up each of these genes. Their final goal is to sequence the other 95 to 98 percent of our genetic material.

Will achieving all of this reveal everything there is to know about human life? Does the genome contain ‘the most important set of instruction books’ man has ever found? Will the Human Genome Project spell out cures for all human ills? The following articles consider these questions.