Potential Health Benefits of the Human Genome Project
Potential Health Benefits of the Human Genome Project
From World News Tonight to the cover of Science magazine, the Human Genome Project (HGP) has attracted much attention. For the past few years, the HGP has been at the forefront of science news and publicity. It has been built up to be the largest breakthrough in the history of modern science. This project will revolutionize the practice of medicine by drastically improving the treatment and/or prevention of numerous diseases and defects. The HGP is in the process of sequencing all the protein bases of DNA in a human, and although each person’s DNA is unique, scientists agree that there is a certain sequence common to everyone. Finding this sequence and recognizing what parts of the DNA do what is the ultimate goal of the HGP. This task, developed in 1990, didn’t just seem difficult at its time of conception; it seemed impossible. However, expected advancements in technology have occurred along the way, placing the task within reach. What will stem from these findings will for sure make a significant impact on modern medicine.
The Human Genome Project is an international research program attempting to construct detailed genetic maps of the human genome, to determine the sequence, to localize the approximately 100,000 genes in the genome, and to be able to analyze all of this (“The HGP” 1). The term genome refers to the sum of all genes, which are made of DNA (“Speed” 7). DNA is made up of four similar chemicals (called bases), which are also called amino acids. They are called guanine, cytosine, thymine, and adenine. These four amino acids are repeated in a certain order throughout three billion pairs in the human genome (“Human” 5). It is this certain order that makes each person unique. Scientists do say, however, that humans are enough alike that there is a genomic sequence that can function as a standard for all of humanity (“Speed” 2). To find this sequence is the major goal of the HGP. Jack Robertson, in his article in the Sacramento Business Journal paints a picture of the future with the HGP in hand.
Cancer will be gone. Birth defects will disappear like childhood diseases did a generation ago. An understanding of the entire sequence of...