Those test can improve human lives.Some tests are used to clarify a diagnosis and direct a physician toward appropriate treatments, others avoid families from having children with devastating diseases and identify people at high risk for diseases.For example,a gene test that will provide doctors with a simple diagnostic test for a common iron-storage disease, transforming it from a untreatable one to a treatable one. The gene tests for adult-onset disorders such as Alzheimer's disease and some cancers are targeted to healthy people who are identified as being at high risk because of a strong family medical history for the disorder.
Medicine
Pharmacogenomics is the study of how an individual's genetic inheritance affects the body's response to drugs. Pharmacogenomics holds the promise that drugs might one day be tailor-made for individuals and adapted to each person's own genetic makeup. Environment, diet, age, lifestyle, and state of health all can influence a person's response to medicines, but understanding an individual's genetic makeup is thought to be the key to creating personalized drugs with greater efficacy and safety.
Pharmaceutical companies will be able to create drugs based on the proteins, enzymes, and RNA molecules associated with genes and diseases. This will facilitate drug discovery and allow drug makers to produce a therapy more targeted to specific diseases. This accuracy not only will maximize therapeutic effects but also decrease damage to nearby healthy cells.
Instead of the standard trial-and-error method of matching patients with the right drugs, doctors will be able to analyze a patient's genetic profile and prescribe the best available drug therapy from the beginning. This will not only take the guesswork out of finding the right drug, it will speed recovery time and increase safety as the possiblility of side effects is eliminated.
Vaccines made of genetic material, either DNA or RNA, will activate the immune system but will be unable to cause infections. They will be inexpensive, stable, easy to store, and capable of being engineered to carry several strains of a pathogen at once.
Risk assessment
Based on the knowledge of the human genome, scientists can assess possible health damage and risks posed to individuals by exposure to toxic agents such as radiations, mutagenic chemicals and cancer-causing toxins and reduce the likelihood of heritable mutations. This is useful because genetic differences make some individuals more susceptible or resistant to these agents. Further work will be focused on the genetic basis of such differences.
Evolution and Human Migration
The HGP provides information helps us understand human evolution through germline mutations in lineages and the common features that we share with other forms of life. Comparison between the genomes of humans and other organisms such as mice already has led to similar genes associated with diseases and traits. Further comparative studies will help determine the yet-unknown function of thousands of other genes. The HGP can also help scientists study the migration of different population groups based on female genetic inheritance, mutations on the Y chromosome to trace lineage and migration of males.Scientist can compare breakpoints in the evolution of mutations with ages of populations and historical events as well.
DNA Forensics (Identification)
Any type of organism can be identified by examination of DNA sequences unique to that species. Identifying individuals is less precise at present, but when DNA sequencing technologies progress further, direct characterization of very large DNA segments, and even whole genomes will become feasible and practical and will allow precise individual identification.
It can be applicated in identifying potential suspects whose DNA may match evidence left at crime scenes, exonerating persons wrongly accused of crimes, identifying crime and catastrophe victims, establishing paternity and other family relationships, identifying endangered and protected species as an aid to wildlife officials, detecting bacteria and other organisms that may pollute air, water, soil, and food, matching organ donors with recipients in transplant programs, determining pedigree for seed or livestock breeds and authenticating consumables such as caviar and wine.
Agriculture, Livestock Breeding, and Bioprocessing
The HGP provides information helps us understand plant and animal genomes and will allow us to create stronger, more disease-resistant plants and animals in order to reduce the costs of agriculture and providing consumers with more nutritious, pesticide-free foods. Already growers are using bioengineered seeds to grow insect- and drought-resistant crops that require little or no pesticide. Farmers have been able to increase outputs and reduce waste because their crops and herds are healthier.New environmental cleanup uses for plants such as tobacco have been found. A researcher has genetically engineered tobacco plants in his laboratory to produce a bacterial enzyme that breaks down explosives such as TNT and dinitroglycerin. Waste that would take centuries to break down in the soil can be cleaned up by simply growing these special plants in the polluted area.
Ethical, legal and social issues
Althrough the potential applications of the HGP are enormous, many ethical concerns have arisen in the society.The concerns can be summary in the table below:
Conclusion
Sources
Book
Advanced-level Biology for Hong Kong by Y.K.Ho Book 2
Websites
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Genome_Project
http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/home.shtml
