Studying mankind

It is ironic that mankind's understanding of the genome "" the genetic material in an organism "" is so heavily dependent on inanimate intelligence. Mapping genomes is much more about computational mathematics than biology. The human genome has 23 pairs of chromosomes with the male and female of the species contributing one each per pair. Each chromosome consists of a DNA strand which, in turn, consists of sequenced pairs of the four DNA bases introduced to popular culture by the cult "GATTACA". The differences in sequence among the 3.2 million base-pairs in each cell are critical. Thus, it requires very fast computers to map genomes. The breakthroughs in genome mapping by Craig Venter's Celera (2000) and the Human Genome Project (2001) involved cutting corners, partly because computers were not fast enough. Half the genome was mapped and it was assumed that the other half would be very similar. On this basis, it was postulated that humans were very similar creatures, with 99.9 per cent of their genes in common and sharing over 95 per cent of their DNA with apes.

Mr Venter gained notoriety as a publicity hound for researching and publishing his own genome. Now it turns out that people aren't quite as similar to one another as was thought. A week or so ago, the J. Craig Venter Institute published Mr Venter's entire genome "" the "diploid map". This makes it possible to compare the exact chromosome contributions of each parent. Variations between individuals are magnitudes more than earlier believed. People share only about 99 per cent of their DNA. The understanding of genetic predisposition to disease (and associated drug research) will take a quantum leap as more diploids are mapped, and statistically significant pools of data become available. Mr Venter says thousands of genomes will be mapped soon "" he projects that costs will drop to $100,000 per genome (from $70-odd million in 2000) by end-2007, as proof-of-concept research scales up. The payoffs are impossible to quantify because they are so large. A revolution in bio-science would have knock-on effects across many other domains. Mr Venter is himself attempting to create and patent artificial bacteria. It's been mooted that such creatures could be fuel sources and clean up pollution by literally eating it.

Once genome data is available at a moderate cost, insurance and health care industries will surely start factoring genomes into policy premia. Forensic crime-solving will become an even more powerful tool of law enforcement. Unfortunately, this is one of science's most sensitive areas. Every advance sparks off (often ill-informed) ethical and philosophical debate. Apart from the "intelligent design" lunatics, who deny Darwin and find it shocking that apes and humans have a common ancestor, there are also the eugenicists who seize upon every advance in genome mapping to demand that humans be bred for characteristics like race horses and Bluepoint Siamese. They will now demand that people with certain genomes be forbidden to procreate. Others will equally wrong-headedly demand that genome research be banned precisely because a better understanding of genome maps could further eugenics!

One must hope that the genome is well and truly out of the bottle. If mapping skills are rapidly disseminated in the way the Human Genome Projects showed to be possible, somebody somewhere will continue the research. The potential rewards from genome mapping are too large for humanity to turn its back on the proper study of mankind.