Cracking the Code of Life Re: stargazer#37

Dear Simi (stargazer?),

Thanks for the comments regarding this article. I will write you soon on eudora.

Asad

P.S. I cannot follow this repartee about maniacs that `urstruly` and `Rsaxena` seem to be enjoying. Should I consider this a normal `Chowk interactions` phenomenon?

Cracking the Code of Life Re: Scout #32

``Perhaps if Pakistani and Indian doctors like yourself take your knowledge, wealth, and power to your own countries and put it to use there, we have a chance at improving our status``

Believe it or not, I am thinking about doing just that in the long run. And it`s going to be a number of years before I can actually do that I think. Knwoledge I can take back..but `wealth and power` it`s difficult to think about as long as I am a graduate student (and getting a minimal stipend)! I suppose this brings up the issue of the rampant brain drain faced by Pakistan, and how many of us will actually go back to make that difference (however small it may be like you said). When (and if) I go back I`ll probably have to resort to being a physician and not so much a researcher, because human genetics research (which will require a lot of grants) might be difficult to indulge in. But then I`m not too sure about the research environment of the country so if anyone is knowledegable about basic biomedical research in academic centers there then please share it with me.

Cracking the Code of Life Gene therapy will not be a panacea for all ailments. Like some others pointed out it will be able to provide some benefit (or maybe a great deal of benefit depending on the disease), but the impact of the environment (which translates into your diet, lifestyle, habits, etc.) CANNOT be over looked. Likewise, the idea of creating more tolerant human beings, or those with some other such attributes, is far fetched because the environment in which you raise the kid will still have a major impact on physical and spiritual development. In other words, genetic clones of Hitler or Mother Teresa will not necessarily end up with the same attributes. The prospects of human cloning, though far fetched, are certainly scary all the same, hence the need for strict laws against such attempts. But cloning of large animals has been acheived (remember Dolly the sheep?), but does that bring us closer to cloning humans? and for what purpose? This is very much the dark side of the science.

From a more desi perspective, the Third World countries are far from jumping onto the genomics bandwagon. So does that mean that only the richer/more developed countries will be able to enjoy completely the fruits of this new science?

Asad

Cracking the Code of Life Re: Harish #7 and others

Harish,

I agree with you regarding the patenting issue being a double-edged sword. There are no easy answers but looking at it from a geneticist`s viewpoint: if I am denied genome information that can be vital for my research then a couple of months efforts can end up being much over that. From a patient`s perspective, genome information translates into gene-based diagnostic tests, but companies patenting such information can charge exorbitant amounts for their services. So we are talking about biotech firms that only look at profit margins. Quite the opposite thought process is a product of the academic labs, since a good amount of research breakthroughs are published for all to benefit from. On the other hand the fact that you need patenting as a safeguard for your discoveries is flawed when you look at the sequencing effort of the human genome project: it was a decentralized effort with 5 main centers in the U.S. and U.K. collaborating extensively. All sequence being generated was being made publicly available on the Internet. Celera Genomics (and its maverick Craig Venter) certainly provided the impetus for the publicly-funded HGP to get its rear into gear, but I still cannot be convinced how the former (or any other biotech firm) can claim ownership of the genome or any part of it?

Thanks for bringing up the role played by recent genomomic work in elucidating human history. Knowing about our genes has certainly given us insight into anthropology...molecular anthroplogy maybe I should say? My knowledge about this fascinating field is sketchy but I do remember reading papers about how genotyping people from different races and ethnicities has provided evidence of past exoduses, and other similar events in human history. Studying mithochondrial DNA inheritance patterns (so-called `Maternal inheritance`) in humans indicate, amomg many other things, that we are all descendents of a handful of people (if not one person..namely a woman from Africa called the `Mitochondrial Eve`..controversial issue!). Nothing new in that some would argue. Furthermore, Y-chromosomal studies have allowed elucidation of `Paternal inheritance` in humans and can strengthen or weaken issues of racial lineage.

Your question regarding the role of the mixing of the Aryans and Dravidians resulting in people of the Indian Subcontinent is intriguing and my guess would be that DNA studies would certainly be one way of going about it. Again not my area of expertise, but interesting all the same.

I would rather not say anything about recent human genome-based progress vis-a-vis Islam, primarily because I am not really knowledgeable about these aspects. I leave that to better informed `Chowkwallas and Chowkwallis` to inculcate me about these issues.

Asad.

Cracking the Code of Life Hi Nushmia,

Thanks for the warm welcome to Chowk!

Will join the discussion after finishing some experiments. You`re right about the incomplete intro: it was supposed to read `...viruses as tools for gene therapy of cetain hereditary diseases affecting the liver`

A