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DNA Project 'to Make UK World Genetic Research Leader'
mrspoonsi (2955715) writes A project aiming to revolutionise medicine by unlocking the secrets of DNA is under way in centres across England. Prime Minister David Cameron has said it "will see the UK lead the world in genetic research within years". The first genetic codes of people with cancer or rare diseases, out of a target of 100,000, have been sequenced. Experts believe it will lead to targeted therapies and could make chemotherapy "a thing of the past". Just one human genome contains more than three billion base pairs — the building blocks of DNA. Prof Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust, said: "I can see a future where genetics is going to come into every bit of medicine from cardiology to oncology to infectious diseases." "Twenty years from now there's going to be a plethora of those, we will have a series of mutations which academics and industry will have developed therapies for, which will be targeted at you and specific for that cancer." He said chemotherapy, which attacks all dividing cells in the body, would be replaced with such therapies. "We will look back in 20 years' time and think of blockbuster chemotherapy [as] a thing of the past and we'll think 'Gosh, what an era that was'." David Cameron has announced a series of investments across government, industry and charities totalling £300m ($500m).
We don't have to be 20 years in the future to look at right now and think what an awful thing chemo is.
There's a big difference between mapping the genomes of cancer patients and developing individualized treatments, akin to the difference between being able to read a novel and being the editor. As it is, we can't even understand most of the human genome, but I suppose this is a step in the right direction.
Government, industry and charities will have to ante up a lot more than that. The answers aren't just going to fall out of the sequences either.
one of these days if only to be as stupid as is possible and yet not jump off cliffs while being so.
"The Experts" have been doing this for twenty years. They're still working at it. I suggest the politicians try talking to an expert:
http://pipeline.corante.com/
AC
Please clone Princess Diana!
"The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old......They literally know nothing." - Ben Rhodes
A century ago UK was the most powerful nation on earth, with colonies all over the globe. So powerful that it was said that the sun never rest on the "Union Jack"
The UK of today is very much different. The students who study computer course in school study how to use Microsoft Words and Microsoft Powerpoint
With the school system of UK's second largest city being hijacked by a certain religious group to inculcate students with extremist religious ideology --- UK is at the end of the rope
With all these going on, how probably will UK become the genetic research leader of the world ?
My first thought on seeing this was that it's a way round the limits on the police retaining people's DNA records. Now we need everyone's DNA and to keep it forever, because, you know, cancer!
Look out, here come the mutants! Is there a strong guarantee that these genetic therapies will not cause more problems than they solve??
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karyotype
This is possibly one of the very few decent things he has actually done.
Admittedly only so he can get more votes. Do all the bad shit as early as possible, "hey look we fixed the economy", now do all the really nice things so everyone jumps on-board again.
It's not like old people care, they are the voters anyway. And half will likely have forgot.
Revolutioninzing medicine is just a side-effect. The real benefit of better understanding DNA is the ability to engineer custom organisms from scratch, to use as biorobots, food, weapons, or other such purposes.
Is this where we learn how closely related the people on that island are?
The US has shot itself in the head by forcing most genetic researchers to work in foreign nations. We are now somewhat of a cripple due to right wing forces and their idiotic moral wizardry. Mega billions of cash are lost to us as other nations acquire patents and develop products. While the right wing pondered the theoretical joys of morality in a stem cell other nations applied science and funding. The right wing in the US has turned us into Clown Central or maybe we should call it the Bad Comedy Club.
in this endeavour.. after all, they are kinda leading the world in unjustified and unwarranted sample collection and indefinite retention of them.
They have ten times as many people as in the U.K. Why aren't their countries doing amazing research?
Could it possibly have anything to do with the very DNA that this article about? How ironic.
The average African IQ is 70. SEVENTY.
Think about it.
Biologists and chemists have become quite good at going from genes to treatments; meaning, if you know which gene causes a disease, in many cases, you can come up with a treatment. The holdup for cancer has been that, genetically, it's not one disease but thousands, many of which haven't been characterized. By identifying the genes responsible, people will be able to develop specific drugs and treatments, and many cancers will likely become treatable.
But correlating genetic and medical data will be useful for many other purposes as well: predicting disease progression and treatment outcomes, predicting sensitivity and efficacy of particular drugs, etc.
The UK is extremely invasive and their people are OK with it. They DNA collect on their people as well as monitor them more than most nations. Their national health service provides them the cheapest means to access such info and statistics. Combine that with their monitoring system and you'll get the first serious genetic to behavior results.
Democracy Now! - uncensored, anti-establishment news
So, the Eugenics Wars are coming after all.
oddly enough, there's actually already a project doing that .... they presented data at the World Congress on Human Genetics in Montreal several years ago.
See www.oxfordtoday.ox.ac.uk/features/what-makes-british
Countries all across the globe are sequencing human genonmes, 1,000 per year
I believe that the BGI (bejing genome institue) is sequencing, by itself, more then all of the uk
as to all the other nonsense her (chemotherapy is toxic heavy metals...sheesh, that is total gibberish)
what is it about biotech that brings out the 5 year old we can have talking robotic cars for 1 $ ?
Dear Sir: I don't know what planet you are living on, but the us is home to most of the companies that make DNA sequencers (illumina, ion torrent, pac bio, 454)
It is home to an awful lot of cutting edge research - we are still, chest beating aside, #1 in the world
True, China has made an effort, and in theory the BGI (beijing genome institute ) is one of the worlds top centers, along with wellcome sanger in the UK, but to say that we are not #1 is just idiotic
as for stem cells, do you know that this is a bandwagon ? maybe stem cells will do something; maybe not - but they are years away
we could be making electromechanical implantable devices for diabetics today, instead of wasting money on stem cells, which, again, are years away
why do i even bother ?
perhaps you could give us some examples that make a statistical dent in the death rate ?
ie childhood leukemia is, on a total population basis, rather rare
we have known the exact molecular mechanism of sickle cell (including the hyper dependence on concentration of deoxy HbS for gelation) for sometime
hasn't really help
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