Elite DNA, the first of the decoders

2007/07/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Genetika

The genome of James Watson has been decoded recently. Precisely, together with Francis Crick, Watson revealed in 1953 the structure of DNA. Scientists who have decoded their genome claim that for the first time they have spent less than a million dollars on their decoding.

For the moment, however, the decoding of genomes is more symbolic than practical. This information is not yet available in medicine. Therefore, the Watson genome has a hollow: A grandmother of Watson had Alzheimer's disease, but, being an incurable disease, Watson did not want to know if she has a gene that is associated with the disease, since even knowing that she could do nothing.

However, this can change in the future. The more genomes we have decoded, the more possibilities will be to analyze the relationship between diseases and genes and, subsequently, influence it.

For the time being, the U.S. Institute of Human Genome Research It intends to decode the genomes of hundreds of people and a private organization, the X Prize Foundation, has announced that it will donate 10 million dollars to those who manage to decode one hundred genomes in ten days.

However, the decoding technology of DNA is too expensive for most of the population. On the other hand, the first to decode have been the most prestigious scientists and many people do not agree with it. And it is that, unlike Watson, they wanted to know if they have genes that are associated with diseases, since they may give them an advantage when they invent the cure. Critics consider that others should have the same right, so there is no need to have priority in decoding DNA.