The Human Genome Project.

The Human Genome Project:

The human Genome Project was completed in 2003 and was a 13 year project coordinated by the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Institutes of Health.

The goals of this project:

-identify all the approximately 20,000-25,000 genes in human DNA

-determine the sequences of the 3 billion chemical base pairs that make up human DNA,

-store this information in databases

-improve tools for data analysis

& other.

Though the HGP is finished, analyses of the data will continue for many years. Diagram below is the Human genome diagram.

The structure of DNA by Watson+Crick

Watson+Crick's Full names:

-James Watson.

-Francis Crick.

Facts:

-Crick and Watson, together with Maurice Wilkins, won the 1962 Nobel Prize in Medicine for their discovery of the structure of DNA.

-Francis Harry Compton Crick was born on 8 June 1916 near Northampton.

-James Dewey Watson was born on 6 April 1928 in Chicago and studied at the universities of Chicago.

What did they do?

At that time Maurice Wilkins and Rosalind Franklin, both working at King's College, London, were using X-ray diffraction to study DNA. Crick and Watson used their findings in their own research. In April 1953, they published the news of their discovery, a molecular structure. Then Watson, Crick and Wilkins shared the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1962. Picture below is Watson and Crick.

Genetic diseases and testing

Genetic Diseases:


Genetic Diseases also known as Genetic Disorder is a problem caused by abnormalties in genes or chromosones. Some diseases are caused from this for exaple cancer but they can also be caused by enviromental factors.

Facts:

-Currently round about 4,000 Genetis Disorders are known and there is even more been discoverd.

-Around 5% of Americas population carry one of the defective gene.

Genetic Testing:

Gene testing also know as DNA based tests is the newest and most sophisticated way of testing Genetic Disorders, this involes a direct test to the DNA molecule itself and other tests too.

Genetic Tests are used for:

-carrier screening, which involves identifying unaffected individuals who carry one copy of a gene for a disease that requires two copies for the disease to be expressed

-newborn screening

-confirmational diagnosis of a symptomatic individual.

&more.

Gene Therapy

What is Gene Therapy?

Gene Therapy is a technique that is used to correct genes that are used for disease development that are not working as well as it should be.



How Gene Therapy Works?

In most Gene Therapy studies a normal gene is put in to replace a diease gene.

The web definition for Gene Therapy:

-Treatment of a disease by introducing a new gene into a cell. The new gene may be used to replace a function that is missing because of a defective gene. Gene Therapy can be used to prevent or treat a disease

How it can help us:

-In the future doctors could use this technique to treat disorders without using drugs or surgery it can be done simply by inserting a gene into the patients cells.

dolly the sheep

Dolly was a ewe, the first animal to be cloned from a adult cell called the somatic cell this was done by using the procceses of nuclear transfer. She was cloned by Ian Wilmut, Keith Campbell and colleagues at the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Dolly Facts:

Name:Dolly

Born: 5 july 1996

Death: she died at the age of six

Other Important facts:
Dolly was named the most famous sheep in the world by Scientific American

The cell that Dolly got cloned from was from the mammary glad therefore this could recreate a whole individual.

Since Dolly was cloned by a cell from the mammary gland she got named after a busty country western singer Dolly Parton.

Who was Gregor Mendel?

Gregor Mendel Facts:

Full Name: Gregor Johann Mendel

Born: July 22, 1822

Gregor was born into a poor farming family and didnt have enough money for education so the only choice to escape the poverty was to enter the monastery then he went to another place to study but failed so he went back to the monastery as a failure. Then back at the monastery he started to investigate his pea plants.

What is he Famous for?

Gregor is famous because he was the first person to discover the different characteristics of plants.

How did he do it?

Gregor knew that other scientists have already done experiments on this and he decided to try so he raised and studied over 28,000 pea plants. He studied the height and colour and others of the pea pod then eventually he published his work but didnt affect science till 1900 years after Gregors death.

Genetically Modified Food.

What is a Genetically Modified Food?

A Genetically Modified food is a food that is different to others, because it has had it's DNA change by genetic engineering.



Examples Of a GM food.


●One example of a GM food would be a purple carrot a normal carrot with the DNA of a purple fruit or vegetable like a grape.


●Another example would be a really large tomatoe because the DNA would be taken from a pumpkin for example and placed into the tomatoe.

The Dangers:

●Gm foods have been tested on rats and it showed that the rats that ate the foods didnt grow propley.

●Another danger is that GM foods are new so there hasnt been any long time testing so it is not proved that they are safe or dangerous to humans.

The Good Points:

●One good point is that plants using genetic engineering can be adapted so that they can fight of weeds so no crops will be ruined.

●We can produce more food like rice and other foods like that to feed the starving people of the world.