For the first time, US researchers have decoded all the genes of a woman who died of myeloid leukemia, and they found 10 mutations that contributed to the development of her cancer.

This finding is significant on several fronts. It’s the first time that a cancer genome has been sequenced. The scientists took samples of both cancer and normal skin cells from the same woman, and sequenced the DNA on both samples. Previous to this, the focus was on select regions of the genome, called candidate regions, suspected of carrying genes that cause or contribute to cancer.

The study also found that 8 of the 10 mutations have never been suspected as contributing to the disease. The researchers found them on every cancer cell and none in the normal samples, which suggests that these mutations play as-yet unknown roles in skin cancer.

The research is focused on skin cancer, but scientists are enthusiastic about finding similar or the same genes in other types of cancers.

At her request, the woman’s identity is kept secret, but this is also the first time that a woman’s genome has been sequenced. Previous to her, only James Watson and Craig Venter’s DNA have been decoded. 

(Image credit: medicineworld.org) 

This week b5 media’s Health and Wellness channel is focusing on celebrities health.  Our focus is not on ‘tittle tattle’  and hot gossip about Angelina, Brad or ’Tomkat’ but rather a serious look at health issues that high profile individuals share with all of us. 

In the genetics world, our ‘celebrities’ are the likes of Craig Venter and James Watson - pioneering geneticists but basking in the eye of the media.

The race to sequence genomes has resulted in some major PR, particularly for Craig and James. 454 is sequencing James Watson’s genome and Craig has announced some of his results in PLoS.  TV star Larry King, cosmologist Stephen Hawking, Google co-founder Larry Page, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and junk bond trader Michael Milken have all paid a vast sum of money to have their genomes sequenced.

However, this is causing a degree of discomfort within the scientific community.  They are worried that only the rich will benefit and it’s sending out the wrong messages to the public.

I have a different perspective.  Research has to start somewhere.  The very rich have always been the first to buy pioneering technology whether it’s a car, the latest computer or mobile phone.  Their money will assist  in further driving down the cost of the technology to such a price that will be affordable to us mere mortals.

Elaine Warburton  www.geneticsandhealth.com

Geneticist Craig Venter has announced that he is creating a life form that feeds on climate-ruining carbon dioxide to produce fuel.  He disclosed his potentially world-changing “fourth-generation fuel” project at an elite Technology, Entertainment and Design conference in California. Among the audience were Al Gore and Google co-founder Larry Page.

Biofuel alternatives to oil are third-generation. The next step, Venter says, is to re-engineer existing life forms that feed on CO2 and give off fuel such as methane gas as waste.  Simple organisms can be genetically re-engineered to produce vaccines or octane-based fuels as waste.

Venter’s team is using synthetic chromosomes to modify organisms that already exist, not making new life.  The limiting part of the equation isn’t designing an organism, it’s the difficulty of extracting high concentrations of CO2 from the air to feed the organisms.  Scientists put “suicide genes” into their living creations so that if they escape the lab, they can be triggered to kill themselves.

“We have 20 million genes which I call the design components of the future,”Venter said. “We are limited here only by our imagination.”

“If they could produce things on the scale we need, this would be a methane planet,”Venter said. “The scale is what is critical; which is why we need to genetically design them.”

Venter anticipates having his fourth generation fuels available within 18 months with CO2 as the fuel stock.

Elaine Warburton  www.geneticsandhealth.com

Google has been nominated for the 2006 Captain Hook Awards for Worst Corporate Offender:

Google are reportedly making their massive computing power available to the J Craig Venter Foundation for gene sequencing to generate a gene catalogue for all the genes on the planet. Individual users will then input their own genetic sequence for a read out of their genetic predispositions analyzed against the existing database.

The supposed link between Google and the Venter Foundation is old news and unconfirmed. Organizers of the Captain Hook Awards are accusing Google and the Venter Foundation of attempting to monopolize all genetic information - yours, mine, the world’s. Are they for real?

First of all, if people wanted to upload their genomic information onto a Google database, that’s their personal choice. I don’t see any evidence of Google coercing them.

The reality is, as much as our knowledge of genetics has advanced over the past 20 years, we are still far from understanding even a small portion. We are not even close to being able to manipulate our genome permanently for ours and our offsprings’ benefit. And frankly, I think most people would welcome the idea of personalized, gene-based medicines if they are more effective and cause less side effects.

We can either harness the technological power of Google and the Venter Foundation for good. Or, stay in the dark ages cocooned in deluded safety but never reap the benefits. Can’t have it both ways.

ZDNet UK, March 29, 2006
via Slashdot, March 30, 2006

Middle school kids in the Baltimore-Washington Region are getting a chance to hop on the J. Craig Venter Institute sponsored Discover Genomics! Mobile Laboratory. All the equipment that’s needed to conduct biology experiements is on board: electricity, running water, micropipettes, centrifuges, electrophoresis supplies, and reagents. Each class gets hands-on experience in extracting DNA, studying human physiology, disease pathology, etc.

Makes me want to be a kid again to experience the excitement of a molecular biology lab for the first time. On second thought, getting hand cramps after loading the nth gel for the nth time in a month lost its appeal after a while. I’ll leave it to the youngsters to do it for me from now on.

The View from Ellicott City, March 29, 2006