Human genome diversity: what about the other human genome project?

Although the Human Genome Project has been successful, the Human Genome Diversity Project, proposed in 1991, has so far failed to thrive. One of the main values in studying the human genome, however, will come from examining its variations and their effects. To do that in a systematic way, an active Human Genome Diversity Project, or something very similar, will ultimately prove vital. Such an effort will confront difficult ethical and political issues; this article reviews those issues and tries to show how they might be overcome.     

The Human Genome Diversity Project: past, present and future

The Human Genome Project, in accomplishing its goal of sequencing one human genome, heralded a new era of research, a component of which is the systematic study of human genetic variation. Despite delays, the Human Genome Diversity Project has started to make progress in understanding the patterns of this variation and its causes, and also promises to provide important information for biomedical studies.     

人类变异组计划及其进展

基因组学构建了人类的基因组图谱,后基因组时代的主要任务是解释基因组如何影响生命活动,由此产生了各种新类型的组学:结构基因组学,功能基因组学,蛋白质组学,代谢组学等。人类基因组突变学会于2006年6月在澳大利亚的墨尔本会议上正式启动了人类变异组计划。该计划旨在全球范围内广泛收集所有基因和蛋白质序列变异和多态性的数据,采用全基因组级别的基因型与表型关联等方法,系统地搜索并确定与人类疾病相关的变异,以指导临床应用。鉴于该计划对人类健康领域将产生的潜在影响,文章较为全面地介绍了该计划的起源和主要内容,并对其意义和前景进行了讨论。     

Development and application of genotyping technologies

With the completion of Human Genome Project,International HapMap Project and the publication of copy number variation in human genome,a great number of accurate,rapid,and cost-effective technologies for SNP analysis have been developed,promoting the research of the complex diseases.This article presents a review of widely used genotyping techniques,and the progress and prospect in the study of complex diseases in terms of the projects and achievements of Chinese National Human Genome Center at Shanghai(CHGC...     

From sequencing to annotating: extending the metaphor of the book of life from genetics to genomics

The article discusses how the metaphor of the Book of Life was extended over time to cover the life cycle of the Human Genome Project from genetics to genomics. In particular, the focus is on the role of extendable metaphors in the debate on the Human Genome Project in three European newspapers, popular scientific journals and scientific and scholarly articles from 1990 to 2002. In these different domains of use, various parts of the metaphor were highlighted. The metaphor of Book of Life was mainly used to justify the continuation of the gene research from gene sequencing to comparative genomics. Readily extendable metaphors, such as the Book of Life, function as useful communicative tools both over time and across domains of use.     

The Human Microbiome Project: lessons from human genomics

The Human Microbiome Project (HMP) is following in the footsteps of the Human Genome Project (HGP), which will include exciting discoveries, but also potential disappointment and resentment over the lack of medical applications. There is a wiser path for the HMP. This path includes a greater attention to rare variation, an early commitment to an ethical inclusion of indigenous communities, and a recruitment strategy in which medical benefits are de-emphasized.     

The balance between heritable and environmental aetiology of human disease

The Human Genome Project and the ensuing International HapMap Project were largely motivated by human health issues. But the distance from a DNA sequence variation to a novel disease gene is considerable; for complex diseases, closing this gap hinges on the premise that they arise mainly from heritable causes. Using cancer as an example of complex disease, we examine the scientific evidence for the hypothesis that human diseases result from interactions between genetic variants and the environment.     

多序列比对算法的研究进展

多序列比对在阐明一组相关序列的重要生物学模式方面起着十分重要的作用。自从计算机的出现,就有许多研究者致力于多序列比对算法。人类基因组计划和单体型计划使多序列比对研究再次成为研究热点。本文详细归纳了多序列比对的主要算法,总结了国内外近年来多序列比对的研究进展,同时也分析并预测了未来该问题的研究方向。     

DNA芯片技术及应用

DNA芯片技术是随着人类基因组计划的实施发展起来的一项高新技术。本文介绍了DNA芯片的基本原理,并对近年来DNA芯片技术的应用进行了综述。     

Going on a cancer gene hunt

NIH is preparing to announce plans for the pilot phase of their proposed Human Cancer Genome Project. This initiative seeks to provide a complete list of the mutations that give rise to cancer.     

基因组学与动物克隆

“人类基因组计划”和动物克隆是生命科学史上两个重要的里程碑。 “人类基因组计划”所催生的基因组学的灵魂是生命的“序列化”和“数字化”。基于这一理念,华大基因一直致力于搭建测序和生物信息分析平台,其目标是通过广泛的国际合作,分析“所有人类个体和所有地球生命”的基因组。     

An Updated Review on Recent Advances in the Usage of Novel Therapeutic Peptides for Breast Cancer Treatment

International Journal of Peptide Research and Therapeutics - After the completion of the Human Genome Project, the strategic direction of modern genetics shifted towards functional genomics, which...     

A conversation with John Sulston

Sir John Sulston was a co-winner of the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 2002. He won the prize for his discoveries concerning "genetic regulation of organ development and programmed cell death," along with his colleagues sydney Brenner and H. Robert Horvitz. Dr. Sulston was founding director of the Sanger Centre, Cambridge, England, which he headed from 1992 to 2000. From 1993 to 2000, he led the British arm of the international team selected to work on the Human Genome Project. He is co-author of the book The Common Thread: A Story of Science, Politics, Ethics, and the Human Genome, published by Joseph Henry Press in 2002.This interview was conducted on December 20, 2002, shortly after Dr. Sulston was awarded his Nobel Prize and was originally broadcast on that date on radio station WPKN-FM in Bridgeport, Connecticut. The interview was conducted by Valerie Richardson, the Managing Editor of The Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine.Dr. Sulston has been an outspoken advocate against letting the data from the Human Genome Project become property of commercial interests that would charge the world's scientific community for its use. Since leaving the Sanger Institute, he has worked with OxFam, the Oxford Campaign for Famine Relief.     

一种高效的功能基因分离解析法

人类基因组计划（Human Genome Project）的实施揭开了各种生物基因组解析的序幕［1~3］。随着各种生物的基因组解析的顺利进行,遗传基因的功能研究以及寻找新的功能基因变得越来越重要。本文介绍的MegacloneTM技术、MegasortTM技术［4］以及MPSS技术［5］可以高效地分离解析各种功能基因。 Abstract:The implementation of the Human Genome Project preludes the analyzing of biologic genomes［1~3］.Following the successful analysis of diverse biologic genomes,it becomes more and more important to research the functions of genes and to find new functional genes.In this article,we use the techniques of MegacloneTM,MegasortTM［4］ and MPSS［5］ to sort and sequence effectively different functional genes.     

Globalizing Genomics: The Origins of the International Nucleotide Sequence Database Collaboration

Genomics is increasingly considered a global enterprise – the fact that biological information can flow rapidly around the planet is taken to be important to what genomics is and what it can achieve. However, the large-scale international circulation of nucleotide sequence information did not begin with the Human Genome Project. Efforts to formalize and institutionalize the circulation of sequence information emerged concurrently with the development of centralized facilities for collecting that information. That is, the very first databases build for collecting and sharing DNA sequence information were, from their outset, international collaborative enterprises. This paper describes the origins of the International Nucleotide Sequence Database Collaboration between GenBank in the United States, the European Molecular Biology Laboratory Databank, and the DNA Database of Japan. The technical and social groundwork for the international exchange of nucleotide sequences created the conditions of possibility for imagining nucleotide sequences (and subsequently genomes) as a “global” objects. The “transnationalism” of nucleotide sequence was critical to their ontology – what DNA sequences came to be during the Human Genome Project was deeply influenced by international exchange.     

人类肿瘤基因组系统性突变分析带来的机遇

最近发表于《科学》杂志(Science)的“人类乳腺癌和结直肠癌共有编码序列”一文,是继人类基因组计划完成后,对人类疾病状态下基因组改变的首次无偏倚系统性分析.对如何利用该研究发现的候选癌基因获得肿瘤治疗药物的新靶标作初步分析,并介绍这些候选癌基因在识别肿瘤高危人群和依据分子机制更新肿瘤分型方面的潜在应用价值.     

Advances in the human genome project – A review

While celebrating its fifth official birthday last year it seems that the Human Genome Project (HGP) has and will continue to yield important biochemical information to mankind. It is exhilarating to think about the transition from studying genome structure to understanding genome function. The collective actions of information dessimination, technology development for efficient and faster sequencing, high-volume sequencing and developing model organisms has led to its success sofar. Various genome-wide STS-based human maps were completed in 1995, including a genetic map, a YAC map, a RH map with, and an integrated YAC-RH genetic map. These maps provide comprehensive frameworks for positioning additional loci, with the current genetic and RH maps spanning essentially 100% of the human genome and the YAC maps covering 95%. Few genes, however, have yet been localized on these framework maps. To date the Human Genome Project has experienced gratifying success. The technology and data produced by the genome project will provide a strong stimulus to broad areas of biological research and biotechnology. However, enormous challenges remain.     

Analysis of disease-causing genes and DNA-based drugs by capillary electrophoresis towards DNA diagnosis and gene therapy for human diseases

Rapid progress in the Human Genome Project has stimulated investigations for gene therapy and DNA diagnosis of human diseases through mutation or polymorphism analysis of disease-causing genes and has resulted in a new class of drugs, i.e., DNA-based drugs, including human gene, disease-causing gene, antisene DNA, DNA vaccine, triplex-forming oligonucleotide, protein-binding oligonucleotides, and ribozyme. The recent development of capillary electrophoresis technologies has facilitated the application of capillary electrophoresis to the analysis of DNA-based drugs and the detection of mutations and polymorphism on human genes towards DNA diagnosis and gene therapy for human diseases. In this article the present state of studies on the analysis of DNA-based drugs and disease-causing genes by capillary electrophoresis is reviewed. The paper gives an overview of recent progress in the Human Genome Project and the fundamental aspects of polymerase chain reaction-based technologies for the detection of mutations and polymorphism on human genes and capillary electrophoresis techniques. Attention is mainly paid to the application of capillary electrophoresis to polymerase chain reaction analysis, restriction fragment length polymorphism, single strand conformational polymorphism, variable number of tandem repeat, microsatellite analysis, hybridization technique, and monitoring of DNA-based drugs. Possible future trends are also discussed.     

Recent findings from the human proteome project: opening the mass spectrometry toolbox to advance cancer diagnosis,surveillance and treatment

The Human Proteome Project stands to eclipse the Human Genome Project in terms of scope, content and interpretation. Its outputs, in conjunction with recent developments across the proteomics community, provide new tools for cancer research with the potential of providing clinically relevant insights into the disease. These collectively may guide the development of future diagnosis, surveillance and treatment strategies. Having established a robust organizational framework within the international community, the Human Proteome Organization and the proteomics community at large have made significant advances in biomarker discovery, detection, molecular imaging and in exploring tumor heterogeneity. Here, the authors discuss some developments in cancer proteomics and how they can be implemented to reduce the global burden of the disease.     

Epigenomics: genome-wide study of methylation phenomena

Epigenetics is one of the key areas of future research that can elucidate how genomes work. It combines genetics and the environment to address complex biological systems such as the plasticity of our genome. While all nucleated human cells carry the same genome, they express different genes at different times. Much of this is governed by epigenetic changes resulting in differential methylation of our genome--or different epigenomes. Individual studies over the past decades have already established the involvement of DNA methylation in imprinting, gene regulation, chromatin structure, genome stability and disease, especially cancer. Now, in the wake of the Human Genome Project (HGP), epigenetic phenomena can be studied genome-wide and are giving rise to a new field, epigenomics. Here, we review the current and future potential of this field and introduce the pilot study towards the Human Epigenome Project (HEP).