The Human Genome Project

The Human Genome Project

With technology increasing daily in our modern society, we have to wonder what will come of all of the recent studies and large-scale research projects that have involved genetics. After recently reading two articles, I have been able to formulate some of my own predictions of what’s to come.

In Lisa Sowle Cahill’s article, “The genome project: more than a medical milestone” she tells us in a concise manner, the history of the Human Genome Project.

“The Human Genome (H.G. P.) began in 1990 as an international consortium of scientific terms. It planned to map systematically the entire human genome by the year 2005 on a budget of $3 billion. The major supporters of the H.G. P. are the Wellcome Trust, a large medical charity in the United Kingdom, and the U.S. federal government’s National Institute of Health. The H.G.P.’s leaders are the N.I.H.’s James D. Watson, his successor Francis S. Collins, and John. E Sulston, director of the Sanger Center in Cambridge, England. They have made it a point of seeking out international collaborators. These include experts in Germany, France, Japan, and China, all of whom have made important contributions to the recent success of the project.”

A quick history it may be, but it is an extremely important one. As you can tell by the date of its beginning, the Human Genome Project is not very old by scientific standards, yet even though it may seem to be very young, the developments that have been made since its creation have been quite impressive.

Personalized medicine is not very far away. This will mean that there will be drugs tailored to the individual genetic makeup of the patient, thus enhancing the effectiveness of treatments for ailments like cancer, heart disease and some forms of mental illness (Cahill). Someday, we will most likely be able to intervene in germ cell or embryos to remove or change a gene (Cahill).

“Issues of confidentiality and social control take these questions a step further, into economic and political realms,” referring to whether or not genetic information will be completely private or available to others such as family members, insurance agencies, and even employers (Cahill)

This last issue brings me to the next article that I read.

In Jeffrey Kluger’s, “Who owns our genes?