What is the Human Genome Project, and how did it come to be?
4 billion or more years ago, the first spec of life appeared as a bubble. This may not seem important, but this bubble wrote the chemical code for life, and then passed it on. This object that was passed on is DNA, which carries a person's individual traits. A DNA molecule consists of two strands that wrap around each other in the form of a double helix, whose sides, made of sugar and phosphate molecules, are connected by nitrogen, containing bases. The Four different bases that are present in DNA are adenine, thymine, cytosine, and guanine. The particular order of these base pairs is called the DNA sequence which specifies the exact genetic instructions required to create a particular organism with its own unique traits. Every three base pairs that a person has makes up a gene, and it is said today that a human has approximately 30,000 genes. To many doctors, DNA is considered the personal diary of each person, containing everything that has to do with someone's life,! how they will live their lives, what will go on in a person's life, and how they will die. One problem has presented itself though, the human genome contains roughly 3 billion base pairs. When scientists tried to find base pairs, it roughly looked like
------------------------------------------------------------------------ and ordering them to correspond to their respective locations on the chromosomes. After mapping is completed, the next step is to determine the base sequence of each of the ordered DNA fragments. The ultimate goal of genome research is to find all the genes in the DNA sequence and to develop tools for using this information in the study of human biology and medicine. It was thought that the mapping of the human genome will revolutionize medical practice and biological research into the 21st century and beyond. This thought can be proved once all human genes are eventually be found, and accurate diagnostics will be developed for most inherited diseases. Researchers have already identified single genes associated with a number of diseases, such as cystic fibrosis, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, myotonic dystrophy, neurofibromatosis, and retinoblastoma. If a person were to come down with a disease like breast cancer, which may end up to be deadly or not, may pass it on to thei! r children. With the Human Genome Project, it was stated that a scientist could find the bad gene and then possible eliminate it, curing a disease like breast cancer. A computed had been developed to make the whole progress simpler for the scientists; the computer decodes 12,000 letters every second. These computers worked on the DNA chopped, and then coppied over and over again and then died. The computer then bounces light and then Identifies the colors. In many cases, the Cytosine is blue dye, Guanine is yellow, Adenine is red and Thymine is white. A man by the name of Craig Venter was working in the decoding of the Human Genome and noticed this computer age revolution. He decided that he wanted to be involved in this, and created his own company. This company is today called Celera Genomics, Celera for speed, and Genomics is for mapping the Human Genome. Another man, named Francis Collins of National Human Genome Research Institution determined that he would be ! rns. If an entire chromosome is absent, most frequently in Turner syndrome, the disorder is called a monosomy. Structural rearrangements in chromosomes can be detected microscopically by changes in the patterns produced by dye specific staining of chromosomes are said to be chromosomal mutations. There are four major chromosomal mutations. One, microdeletions involve deletion of a small portion of a chromosome, sometimes several genes. The next, microduplications, which produce an extra exact copy of a specific region of a specific chromosome. Inversions is a type of chromosomal mutation, which involves the re-ordering of a segment of chromosome in backwards order. The last chromosomal mutation is translocations. This oc
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Approximate Word count = 1870
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)
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