"how do scientists expect to modify the genetic material of every living human being so as to prevent this defect? is there some parallel technology that promises a mass-producable mutating vaccine or something equal in function?"
It's not often an easy fix, and it's not often even fixable right now.
Once the defective gene is identified, and it's CHEMICAL function is understood, scintists can attempt to make a pill that provides a similar chemical so that the metabolic pathway regains its function.
Cleft palate is a developmental problem, so its treatment would be the mother taking some kind of pill while pregnant.
This is unlikly to be an easy thing to fix for a large number of reasons.
A biological approach to determining the function of a gene is to create a mutation and then observe the effect of the mutation on the organism. This is called a knockout study. While it is not ethical to create knockout mutants in humans, many such mutants are already known, especially those that cause disease. One advantage of having a genome sequence is that it greatly facilitates the identification of genes in which mutations lead to a particular disease.
The mouse, where one can make and characterize knockout mutants, is an excellent model system for studying genetic diseases of humans; its genome is remarkably similar to a human's. Nearly all human genes have homologs in mice, and large regions of the chromosomes are very well conserved between the two species. In fact, human chromosomes can be (figuratively) cut into about 150 pieces, mixed and matched, and then reassembled into the 21 chromosomes of a mouse. Thus, it is possible to create mutants in mice to determine the probable function of the same genes in humans. Genetic stocks of mutant mice have been developed and maintained since the 1940s.
One goal of the mouse genome project is to make and characterize mutations in order to determine the function of every mouse gene. After a particular gene mutation has been linked to a particular disorder, the normal function of the gene may be determined. An example of this approach is the mutated gene that resulted in cleft palates in mice. The researchers found that the gene's normal function is to close the embryo's palate. An understanding of the genetics behind cleft palate in mice may one day be used to help prevent this common birth defect in humans.
I have a theory that everyone who sends a post warning that a machine will catch fire when slashdotted is the product of either a "Faith-based" education initiative, or Christian home-shcooling.
"Imagine what MIT, Berkley, Cambridge, Moscow, Paris and a bunch of other top Universities could do in terms of pushing human achievement forwards if they had the budget that NASA gets."
NASA has an annual budget of about $16 billion. http://www.gpoaccess.gov/usbudget/fy06/browse.html The university of Minnesota alone gets $1.2 Billion a year from the state of MN, so I REALLY doubt that taking NASAs $16B and spreading it sround a pile of universities would result in anything but a bunch of conference abstracts.
Slashdot Mirror
"how do scientists expect to modify the genetic material of every living human being so as to prevent this defect? is there some parallel technology that promises a mass-producable mutating vaccine or something equal in function?"
It's not often an easy fix, and it's not often even fixable right now.
Once the defective gene is identified, and it's CHEMICAL function is understood, scintists can attempt to make a pill that provides a similar chemical so that the metabolic pathway regains its function.
Cleft palate is a developmental problem, so its treatment would be the mother taking some kind of pill while pregnant. This is unlikly to be an easy thing to fix for a large number of reasons.
From: http://www.learner.org/channel/courses/biology/tex tbook/genom/genom_7.html
A biological approach to determining the function of a gene is to create a mutation and then observe the effect of the mutation on the organism. This is called a knockout study. While it is not ethical to create knockout mutants in humans, many such mutants are already known, especially those that cause disease. One advantage of having a genome sequence is that it greatly facilitates the identification of genes in which mutations lead to a particular disease.
The mouse, where one can make and characterize knockout mutants, is an excellent model system for studying genetic diseases of humans; its genome is remarkably similar to a human's. Nearly all human genes have homologs in mice, and large regions of the chromosomes are very well conserved between the two species. In fact, human chromosomes can be (figuratively) cut into about 150 pieces, mixed and matched, and then reassembled into the 21 chromosomes of a mouse. Thus, it is possible to create mutants in mice to determine the probable function of the same genes in humans. Genetic stocks of mutant mice have been developed and maintained since the 1940s.
One goal of the mouse genome project is to make and characterize mutations in order to determine the function of every mouse gene. After a particular gene mutation has been linked to a particular disorder, the normal function of the gene may be determined. An example of this approach is the mutated gene that resulted in cleft palates in mice. The researchers found that the gene's normal function is to close the embryo's palate. An understanding of the genetics behind cleft palate in mice may one day be used to help prevent this common birth defect in humans.
So, antioxidents are good for you and going to an oxygen bar is good for you.
Do they multiply together to get good^2 or do they add to get good*2
Or do they fight like little daemons in your body like Sybil?
BINGO!!!
That's exactly why I chose the mini-itx for the science museum art controller.
It's going to be bolted to the ceiling 50 feet in the air!
I'm not interested in trying to do that with a mac-mini.
Can you even get the mac-mini to boot when power is applied without a
keyboard or monitor attached?
I guess I could get a 46 foot long pole and have someone poke the power button every morning!
I call the city housing inspectors when I see an ad for snow plowing, tree removal or some such nonsense in people's front yards.
It's illegal to post a non real estate, political or garage sale sign in your own front yard.
I want to be able to drive in my own neighborhood without being assaulted by advertising, and I support my community ban on front-yard advertising.
Does the GPL even apply to the "source" for a document?
It would probably be better to just resize the image so it is 1 pixel bigger. I bet that would toss all the stego data in the trash.
I'm now very afraid of what Microsoft will do if I stop running windows update every day.
I mean, I could have clicked on something buried in a 1,000 word "agreement" that said I would keep updating or they can take my house.
I guess I'll start updating twice a day just to make sure.
Not to bee to much of a pedant, but we should start to use non-Christan dating schemes.
AD is scientifically referred to as C.E. The Common Era.
BeforeChrist is B.C.E
All the Atheists reading Slashdot will thank you.
(Probably not thank God though!)
I have a theory that everyone who sends a post warning that a machine will catch fire when slashdotted is the product of either a "Faith-based" education initiative, or Christian home-shcooling.
"Imagine what MIT, Berkley, Cambridge, Moscow, Paris and a bunch of other top Universities could do in terms of pushing human achievement forwards if they had the budget that NASA gets."l
NASA has an annual budget of about $16 billion. http://www.gpoaccess.gov/usbudget/fy06/browse.htm
The university of Minnesota alone gets $1.2 Billion a year from the state of MN, so I REALLY doubt that taking NASAs $16B and spreading it sround a pile of universities would result in anything but a bunch of conference abstracts.