So i have to do a research assignment for some lame course I`m in. My topic is the human genome project. Part of the assignment involves an interview asking approx 8 questions about our topic chosen. The interview can be completed via email, but I really don`t know who to turn to for good, fast feedback. My bio prof is a dyke, so why not come to totse?

its due in a few days, so any help or opinion you have on any of the questions would be greatly appreciated. Heres what I have:

1) Do you think that the human genome project remains one of the biggest projects in modern day biological science?

2) How do you think the information gathered will affect the medical world?

3) Could the human genome project give us more insight as to the theories of evolution by comparing base pair sequencing between species?

4) Why or why don’t you think that the human genome project was a necessary project in understanding life and its diversity?

5) If more than 50% of the genes discovered still have unknown functions do you think it is reasonable to estimate that we will eventually understand every gene and its function? Do you think this could happen within our lifetimes?

6) Because the human genome sequence is 99.9% the same in all people could we use base pair sequencing in determining differences from person to person? Could this information be used in other projects, such as cloning?

7) Can you think of any negative/unethical outcomes from the information gained from this project?

i'd help you out, but i'm a lazy asshole.


Cite Dr. John Molestulo M.D. as your source.

1) Do you think that the human genome project remains one of the biggest projects in modern day biological science?
yes


2) How do you think the information gathered will affect the medical world?
it would help us understand and possibly help treat genetic and possibly infectious diseases


3) Could the human genome project give us more insight as to the theories of evolution by comparing base pair sequencing between species?
I cant say, since im not an expert, but i think there is already enough methods to understand our ancestors without the human genome project


4) Why or why don’t you think that the human genome project was a necessary project in understanding life and its diversity?
many aspects of human health is affected by genes, and it is important to understand what each section of DNA does


5) If more than 50% of the genes discovered still have unknown functions do you think it is reasonable to estimate that we will eventually understand every gene and its function? Do you think this could happen within our lifetimes?
yes and no


6) Because the human genome sequence is 99.9% the same in all people could we use base pair sequencing in determining differences from person to person? Could this information be used in other projects, such as cloning?

i dont know

7) Can you think of any negative/unethical outcomes from the information gained from this project?

possible monopolisation of knowledge

1) Do you think that the human genome project remains one of the biggest projects in modern day biological science?

yes

2) How do you think the information gathered will affect the medical world?

will probably end up more of a commercial project then a medical one

3) Could the human genome project give us more insight as to the theories of evolution by comparing base pair sequencing between species?

possible but I doubt it

4) Why or why don’t you think that the human genome project was a necessary project in understanding life and its diversity?

useful but not necessary (crappy answer I know but you know what they say about the perfect question)

5) If more than 50% of the genes discovered still have unknown functions do you think it is reasonable to estimate that we will eventually understand every gene and its function? Do you think this could happen within our lifetimes?

if "it has no function" counts as a function I think it's possible to discover them all but not within our lifetimes

6) Because the human genome sequence is 99.9% the same in all people could we use base pair sequencing in determining differences from person to person? Could this information be used in other projects, such as cloning?

possibly but not likely

7) Can you think of any negative/unethical outcomes from the information gained from this project?

excessive commercialization(sp?) and possibly more abortions but I say kill the babies anyway.

1) Do you think that the human genome project remains one of the biggest projects in modern day biological science?

Yes, we have some pretty big fuckin genome

2) How do you think the information gathered will affect the medical world?

Possibly be used to develop vaccines to treat specific people, develop virus to kill certain people, maybe even be able to tell who is/isnt going to be smart, etc etc

3) Could the human genome project give us more insight as to the theories of evolution by comparing base pair sequencing between species?

Yes, but it depends. You'd have to have an accurate timeline, ie. what natural events, etc happend at the same time, to see why the genome evolved(i dunno if thats the word...)

4) Why or why don’t you think that the human genome project was a necessary project in understanding life and its diversity?

It was necessary to understand why we came to be. It's like a puzzle. Eventually everything fits and it makes sense, but this is(the human genome project) just another part of the puzzle.

5) If more than 50% of the genes discovered still have unknown functions do you think it is reasonable to estimate that we will eventually understand every gene and its function?

Do you think this could happen within our lifetimes?

No. The human body keeps changing and so there's always going to be a mutated gene or 2 that makes it impossible to know every gene's function.
No. See the answer above.

6) Because the human genome sequence is 99.9% the same in all people could we use base pair sequencing in determining differences from person to person?

Could this information be used in other projects, such as cloning?

Possibly, but you'd have to understand the purpose of every gene in order to understand fully.

Yes, but it depends on the outcomes of the importance of the specific genes. Cloning might be too difficult to do on the human body with our level of technology.

7) Can you think of any negative/unethical outcomes from the information gained from this project?

To some people cloning is unethical. Also, i could be used to make biological weapons that only target a specific race, etc.

So i have to do a research assignment for some lame course I`m in. My topic is the human genome project. Part of the assignment involves an interview asking approx 8 questions about our topic chosen. The interview can be completed via email, but I really don`t know who to turn to for good, fast feedback. My bio prof is a dyke, so why not come to totse?

its due in a few days, so any help or opinion you have on any of the questions would be greatly appreciated. Here's what I have:

1) Do you think that the human genome project remains one of the biggest projects in modern day biological science?

2) How do you think the information gathered will affect the medical world?

3) Could the human genome project give us more insight as to the theories of evolution by comparing base pair sequencing between species?

4) Why or why don’t you think that the human genome project was a necessary project in understanding life and its diversity?

5) If more than 50% of the genes discovered still have unknown functions do you think it is reasonable to estimate that we will eventually understand every gene and its function? Do you think this could happen within our lifetimes?

6) Because the human genome sequence is 99.9% the same in all people could we use base pair sequencing in determining differences from person to person? Could this information be used in other projects, such as cloning?

7) Can you think of any negative/unethical outcomes from the information gained from this project?

1) Yes. Yes, yes yes.

2) More and more treatments will become personally tailored, and many more poorly understood diseases (such as many cancers) will be further characterized. Having a database of the human genome is a great tool - I could get isolate a gene and plug my sequence into the database and know exactly who has characterized what about it already. And I could look at the sequences around it to try and design better primers for next time, or to closer look at the promoter its on, any paralogues, etc.

3) Already has. The techniques applied for the human genome project have lead to the development of many other techniques that have become absolutely essential for studying diversity. From the politics of the HGP arose Whole shotgun sequencing, and whilst it doesn't have the coverage of Hierarchical sequencing, it it is cheaper, faster and very good for environmental samples.
The sequencing of the human genome really amplified interest in sequencing genomes - the whole idea seemed less daunting once we did ourselves. This interest has lead to the development newer, faster sequencing techniques and the development of huge gene databases.
Like above, I could get a sequence right now and plug it into a ntBLAST search and it can come back with the genes that we have characterized (in any taxa I choose) that share some homology - and then bring up a sequence comparison. This can lead to quicker identification of potential gene function in uncharacteristic genes of many organisms. Evolutionary studies are now dominated by molecular biology. Fungal evolution has had a real mad shake up since we stared focusing on molecular biology.
(Although it's been around since the late 70's, its only since we got into doing whole genome sequencing that these methods - Bioinformatics - has really taken off. )


4) I believe that every genome we sequence is important in further understanding diversity. See above. We need as much info as we can get our hands on. The study of evolution, in my opinion, is inadvertently the study of genetic diversity.
As for diversity of human beings, you should look into the Human Genome Diversity Project.

5) All the genes, yes. All of the alleles, no. (Please note the difference between the two. Please.) It may seem like a daunting task right now to characterize every single gene in the genome, but remember twenty years ago that people thought we'd never have the power to sequence the whole human genome. Now look at today - the sequencing capacity of one round of pyro sequencing, a ten million base pair run (also known as 454 sequencing) is the same as the all the sequencing performed the whole world ten years ago.
And if you think genomics is developing fast, proteomics is going in fucking leaps and bounds. (It's 'cause of the drugs targets they're paid to unearth. Big money in this.)
We think there's only ~26,000 genes in total now in the whole geneome - turns out we have thousands of pseudogenes.
1/2 of 26,000? Not going to be too difficult.

6) Yes, we already look at the small base pair differences between people to characterize populations. Look up the Hap Map project - they're monitoring a million plus SNPs (Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms) in about 300 people in 4 populations to look at the loci that have been most subject to natural selection during evolution.
SNPs can be used as genetic markers markers in positional based cloning methods. SNPs are preferred for mapping as they are very frequent markers. (But we were using different genetic markers for positional cloning well before we sequenced the genome)

7) There are wackaloons out there who see any progress made in genetics as BAD and unethical.
People don't like the idea of gene testing used on embryos and infants in utero, they think all progress will
lead to genetic engineering, they fear racial profiling. ( The hap map project and the HGDP have been accused of this)
There is also problems with gene testing and patenting. There is tension here now between groups who want to screen women for the BRCA1 and 2 genes as cheaply as possible, and the company that owns the rights to the tests.
People think gene patenting will halt the spread of information in the scientific community, and this will ultimately be bad for progress. Celera tried to patent human genes, but the Human Genome project released all of these sequences to the public. (And did Celera's shares tumble after that one.)

Almost all those questions are speculative towards a positive awnser. What are you trying to investigate here? The effects of the HGP or how good the HGP could work out for science/humanity? Because the first question can't be awnsered by you, nor by scientists because the matter has not yet been fully investigated. The second question you can awnser but it wouldn't do much good.