The Human Genome project
Introduction: -The human Genome project is a world wide, major initiative in genetics, with scientists from all over the world working on sequencing the four bases throughout human cells. It also aims to identify approximately 100,000 genes formed by these bases and to find the location of the genes on the 23 chromosomes. As part of this, the ethical, legal and social issues are considered and all of the findings are stored in a database for future reference and research. As a result of the findings the human Genome project aims to work out exactly which genes are responsible for different inherited diseases.
In the U.K. this work has been done at the Sanger institute which was set up in 1992 by the welcome trust and medical research. This has been the main British contributor towards the project.
Once the sequence of a base of the gene is known, you can then devise a possible test to see if it is present. Diagnosis tests for several inherited diseases were available by 1999, using DNA either from a blood sample or a scraping taken from the inside of a cheek. Tests like these can identify whether or not a person carries a faulty allele. People might decide not to have children if there is a chance that there children could inherit a disease such as cystic fibrosis or sickle cell anaemia or otherwise could have an antenatal genetic test to see if the child will be born with the disease. In places like the Mediterranean tests like these have shown a decrease in the numbers of children born suffering from inherited diseases such as thalassaemia, a blood disorder common in the Mediterranean. Some genes can be identified in younger patients to work out diseases that will develop in latter life such as Alzheimers disease, ovarian cancer and breast cancer. Genes playa a part in the development of these diseases but so do aspects of the environment, these diseases are called multifactorial diseases. Multifactorial diseases can be predicted through genetic testing however because the environment can effect the outcome so it is usually only working out the probability of the patient contracting the disease. The people with the greatest risks can then be targeted by the health authorities reducing, the risk of death by screening at regular intervals and relevant information and advice about how to cope with the illness.
