Dawson Church
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 The working hypothesis at the start of the human genome Project was that there would be a gene that provided the blueprint to manufacture each of those 100,000 proteins, plus another 20,000 or so regulatory genes whose function was to orchestrate the complex dance of protein assembly.
The further the project progressed, the smaller the estimates of the number of genes became. When the project finished its catalog, they had mapped the human genome as consisting of just 23,688 genes. The huge symphony orchestra of genes they had expected to find had shrunk to the size of a string quartet. |
Peter J. Whitehouse and Daniel George
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 Francis Collins, Director, National human genome Research Institute
In the year 2000 scientists completed the first survey of the human genome. Then-President Bill Clinton announced the accomplishment at a White House press conference, congratulating scientists working in the public and private sectors on what was a "landmark achievement, which promises to lead to a new era of molecular medicine, an era that will bring new ways to prevent, diagnose, treat, and cure disease."1
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A new era had begun for the Alzheimer's field. |
Jeffrey M. Smith
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 The full code of the DNA for a particular type of organism is called a genome. The human genome contains about 3 billion base pairs or a total of 6 billion bases in the double-stranded DNA.
Functional units, which make up only a small percentage of the DNA in plants, animals, and humans, are sequences called genes. Genes code for proteins. In the human genome, genes comprise only about 3% of the DNA. The other sequences are non-coding. The number of genes in a genome varies a great deal. Humans have about 25,000 genes, but the exact number is still being determined. |
Dawson Church
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| Two eminent professors express it this way: "Remembering that the information in the human genome has to cover the development of all other bodily structures as well as the brain, this is not a fraction of the information required to structure in detail any significant brain modules, let alone for the structuring of the brain as a whole."20
The human genome Project initially was focused on cataloging all the genes of the human body. |
Peter h. Fraser and Harry Massey
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 On their human genome Project website, they report that environmental factors may be the single most important trigger in whether a genetic mutation is expressed or not: "Scientists estimate that each of us carries between 5 and 50 [gene] mutations that carry some risk for disease or disability. Some of us may not experience negative consequences from the mutations we carry, either because we do not live long enough for it to happen or because we may not be exposed to the relevant environmental triggers. |
Jeffrey M. Smith
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| A pseudogene is a gene copy that does not produce a functional, full-length protein. The human genome is estimated to contain up to 20,000 pseudo-genes____Their biological roles remain largely unknown."62
A study in Nature confirmed that a gene insert into mouse DNA altered the expression of a nearby pseudogene, which in turn altered the activity of regulatory RNA.
According to INBI, "The same dsRNA can have physiologically different effects63 at different concentrations."64 It is not always clear in advance which gene the dsRNA will affect. |
Gabriel Cousens, M.D.
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 Polymorphic, Pluri-Potential Genes and Individualizing Your Diet
This important concept begins to emerge from the research done in the human genome project, as outlined by Jerry Bishop and Michael Wald-holz in their book Genome, which describes this breakthrough.39 The human genome project makes the point that genes are only one part of the story. More important than genetic inheritance is the phenotypic expression. This is the part where we have a choice. |
| Summary, Chapter 21
1. The human genome research shows us more than 1.4 million genetic variations in the human genome, with more than 100,000 genes.
2. At every stage of development - from embryo to the most elderly - all genetic information is encoded in the gene type and is accessible to any cell at any stage as a potential phenotypic expression. Therefore, we have the potential to activate the highest phenotypic expression at any age.
3. Our genes do not necessarily give rise to disease. Disease arises when lifestyle, diet, and mental stress activate aging gene expression.
4. |
Dr. Sharon Moalem
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 Saying otherwise is like saying that the only part of life not subject to evolutionary pressure is evolution itself
The only-random-changes theory looks even weaker in light of recent work to map the human genome. Geneticists originally believed that every single gene had a single purpose—a gene for eye color, a gene for a widow's peak, a gene for attached earlobes. When genes went wrong, you ended up with a gene for cystic fibrosis, a gene for hemochromatosis, a gene for favism. That theory suggested the existence of more than 100,000 genes. |
| Today, we know that at least 8 percent of the human genome is composed of retroviruses and related elements that have found a permanent place in our DNA—they're called HERVs, or human endogenous retroviruses. Scientists are only beginning to uncover the role HERVs play in human health, but they've already found interesting connections. One study showed that a particular HERV may play an important role in the construction of a healthy placenta; another documented links between HERVs and the skin disorder psoriasis.
And those frisky jumping genes? |
Bill Sardi
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 Since the human genome has been mapped, the identification of oncogenes may open the way to block the activity of these genes and thereby stop cancer growth. Similarly, there are tumor suppressor genes, like p53, that researchers may be able to activate and treat cancer.
Wouldn't it be wonderful to breed a generation of humans who are resistant to cancer? Researchers have attempted to do this in the laboratory. For instance, researchers at Sloan
Kettering Memorial Cancer Center in New York bred mice with "id"or inactive genes. |
| The mapping of the human genome and the ability to conduct gene array tests to determine which molecules switch genes "on or off' is revolutionizing the approach to prevention and treatment of disease. Small molecules, such as found in grapes, olives, garlic, pomegranates and cherries, are able to pass through cell walls and the nucleus of cells to switch genes on or off. Small molecules like allicin from garlic, resveratrol from grapes, quercetin from onions, hy-droxytyrosol from olives, influence so many genes they are being heralded as the drugs of the future. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 On top of that, biotech companies are now playing God with the human genome, trying to figure out ways to create new, high-profit blockbuster drugs that selectively alter human genes to "cure disease" (or at least manage the disease without actually curing it so that patients need to keep buying more drugs). |
Bill Sardi
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| Department of Energy human genome Program, http://www.ornl.gov/hgmis.
Garlic, blood clotting and cancer
Micro blood clots facilitate the spread of cancer by creating a stoppage of cancer cells within small blood capillaries, which then causes tumor cells to accumulate and invade surrounding tissues, what is known as a metastasis. It is critical to prevent metastasis because it is the chief mortality factor in 90% of cancer cases.
Garlic is known as a good blood clot inhibitor. Thromboxane is a factor that facilitates the clotting of blood. |
Peter h. Fraser and Harry Massey
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| Eric Landers, who was at the forefront of the human genome Project, has called the genome a parts list. Having a parts list alone does not tell you what the pieces are for and how to combine them into something useful.18 You need an information template for that.
DNA is an alphabet of only four letters, the chemicals (called bases) adenine, thymine, cystosine, and guanine, yet combinations of those four bases, we are told, determine many, if not most, of our core characteristics, from the color of our eyes to our propensity for developing certain diseases. |
Dr. Sharon Moalem
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| There are 3 billion base pairs of nucleotides in the human genome engaged in a vast and complex dance that makes us who we are. We need to be awfully careful when we start to change the choreography, especially given our current lack of precision. When you try to move one dancer with a bulldozer, you're pretty darn certain to scoop up more than one Rockette. if that's not complicated enough, methyl markers aren't the only way genes are turned on or off. |
Bill Sardi
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| Just a few years ago the entire human genome was mapped. Surprisingly, humans have only 30,000 genes, far less than expected. Small molecules can switch these genes on or off, called gene expression or silencing. Resveratrol is one of these small molecules.
A landmark report in Nature Magazine recently stated that most diseases involve many genes. Only one percent of diseases are single-gene disorders. Single-gene targeted anticancer drugs like Iressa (gefitinib) and Tarceva (erlotinib) have been disappointing. The report in Nature Magazine suggests drugs be used that target many genes. |
Dr. Sharon Moalem
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| Human Genome Project—the mammoth ten-year effort to map out the sequence of all 3 billion nucleotide pairs that make up our DNA. When they were done, project organizers announced that they had effectively created "all the pages of a manual needed to make the human body."
And then epigenetics really rained on their parade. After ten years of painstaking work, the scientists came out of their labs to find out that their map was only a starting point. The scientific community might as well have said, "Thanks for the map. |
Bottom Line Health
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| The age of the human genome is here. The understanding of genes will transform the way we think about many diseases, and is already transforming the way we understand cancers."
. - For more information on cancer genetics, go to the Web site of the National Cancer Institute at www.nci.nih.gov/cancerinfo/preven tion-genetics-causes/genetics.
Vaccines Help 40% of Cancer Patients
Michael Morse, MD, associate professor of medicine, division of medical oncology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, and editor of Handbook of Cancer Vaccines. Humana. |
| Paul Meltzer, MD, PhD, head, section of molecular genetics, cancer genetics branch, National human genome Research Institute.
The New England Journal of Medicine.
Scientists are learning that not all melanoma skin cancers are genetically alike. And that may have far-reaching implications for the treatment and prevention of this disease.
I'm somewhat optimistic now that we may turn the corner on melanoma therapy.
Paul Meltzer, MD, PhD
THE STUDY
Dr. |
| Paul Meltzer, head of the section of molecular genetics in the cancer genetics branch at the National human genome Research Institute, says this study "may have significant clinical implications in the long run, [and is] laying the groundwork for a better individualized and personalized cancer therapy. I'm somewhat optimistic now that we may turn the corner on melanoma therapy."
Both Bastian and Meltzer theorize that one reason current melanoma therapies are not as effective as doctors would like is that they are not targeting the right type of melanoma. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 You have violated intellectual property laws by infringing on the copyrights of companies that have been granted patents on the human genome. You have replicated that gene sequence by having children without the permission of the owners of those gene sequences. As bizarre as it sounds, it's absolutely true: having children is a violation of patent law.
This has come about because those at the U.S. Patent Office seem to have lost their collective minds. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 Today, an astonishing 20 percent of the human genome is now owned by corporations. The simple act of reproducing by having children is now a violation of U.S. patent law. Technically, the corporations that "own" these human genes could sue the parents of all newborns, demanding royalty payments for the use of their intellectual property.
Want to know more shocking facts about intellectual property and the future of food, agriculture and human civilization? See The Future of Food for yourself. And while you're at it, be sure to visit the Center for Food safety (www.centerforfoodsafety. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 There are companies probing the human genome, finding interesting sequences, and then applying for, and being awarded, patents on them.
In fact, merely scratching your skin results in multiple patent violations because your body duplicates patented DNA sequences to repair the damage to your skin. Every one of us it a walking intellectual property pirate, guilty of crimes against U.S. corporations by merely living.
If food and the human genome can be patented, what else is up for grabs? |
Charles Barber
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 The completion of the human genome Project in 2001, also, by association, has served to bolster psychiatry's newfound scientific image. That a rough draft of the human genetic makeup has been developed contributes to a popular belief that psychiatric disorders proceed in neat Mendelian inheritable patterns. But if anything has been gleaned for the last two decades of work in the genetics of psychiatric disorders, it is that it is a terribly complex business. No single gene for psychiatric disorders have been found and likely will never be found. |
Jay Joseph
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 This period also witnessed frustrated investigators beginning to pin their hopes on the then ongoing human genome Project (HGP) to help unravel the mystery of BPD genetics. In a 1997 article, Gottesman and his colleagues wrote that "The task of identifying genes [for behavioral disorders] will inevitably follow from the results of the human genome Project. |
Dawson Church
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| The human genome Project initially was focused on cataloging all the genes of the human body. At the beginning of the 1990s, the original researchers expected to find at least 120,000 genes, because that's the minimum they projected it would take to code all the characteristics of an organism as complex as a human being. Our bodies manufacture about 100,000 proteins, the building blocks of cells. All of those 100,000 building blocks must be assembled with precise coordination in order to support life. |
Jay Joseph
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| In a 1997 article, Gottesman and his colleagues wrote that "The task of identifying genes [for behavioral disorders] will inevitably follow from the results of the human genome Project."5 And a pair of researchers wrote in 2000, "The physical mapping of the human genome is proceeding at a rapid pace," voicing their belief that having this data in hand "will accelerate the process of finding [BPD] genes, because linked regions will no longer require local mapping efforts." According to Hyman, the HGP is "critical...to the solution of complex disorders." |
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