Free Term Paper on the Human Genome Project
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Human Genome Project
A genome is defined as the complete collection of an organisms genetic
material. The human genome is composed of about 50,000 to 100,000 genes located
on 23 pairs of chromosomes in a human cell. It is said that a single human
chromosome may contain more than 250 million DNA base pairs, and it is estimated
that the entire human genome consists of about 3 billion base pairs. The
DNA
is gathered through blood samples taken from many different people. Though
each person has a unique set of DNA the difference in a given pair of samples is
less than 1 percent making the differences pale in comparison to the
similarities. The Human Genome Project is an international collaboration of
scientists who’s goal is to gain a basic understanding of the genetic blueprint
of a human being. This information is found in each cell of the body, encoded in
the DNA. The intent of this project is to identify all genes in the nucleus of a
human cell, to map where those genes are on the chromosomes of the nucleus, and
to determine the seqeuncing or the order of these chemical subunits of the DNA.
The idea to undertake such a project was came about through a series of
scientific conferences held between 1985 and 1987. The actual project ,however,
did not begin until 1990 with the expansion of funding from the NIH and DOE.
There are many nations involved with this project as part of an informal pact
including France, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, and many other european
nations. Also in an effort to speed up the mapping and sequencing process
several private companies have been enlisted to help such as Celera Genomics.
Today there is a lot of research being done under the umbrella of the Human
Genome Project. For instince gene therapy is being developed as a very real cure
for such hereditary diseases as Cystic Fibrosis and Parkinsons where somewhere
in the genetic make up of the body there is a glich tht alows the nervous tissue
of the brain to deteriorate at a slow but steady rate. With gene therapy we will
be able to replace the tissue in the brain with correctly funtioning tissue from
an animal such as a pig. As of early 1999 the Human Genome Project was ahead of
schedule. There is said to be nearly 10 percent of the genome sequenced already
or about 7,600 genes have been mapped to particular chromosomes. Also,
researchers have sequenced the complete genomes of several other organisms such
as E. Coli . This should help scientists to find parallels between our genes and
the genes of other organisms. When completed this project will reap great
rewards for the time and effort put in. Biologists will be able to look at
detailed DNA information that will help in understanding the structure,
organization, and function of DNA in chromosomes. Genome maps of other creatures
will provide a way for scientists to learn more about more complex biological
systems such as our own. In other words this information will revolutionize the
future biological studies. There are however some controversial issues raised by
the findings of this study. One worry is that soon we will be able to clone
humans for body parts in order to save lives. On the surface this seems like a
good idea however if put in the wrong hands this information could be used to
make clones of armies for unstable countries or it could be used to clone those
people who had bad influences on history such as hitler. Besides this issue
there is a religious question that is raised. Should we as humans be able to
play god and create life or should we let sleeping dogs lie and leave this
project alone. Though there seems to be many scary implications to the
continuation of this project there is little doubt that it won’t be completed.
After doing the research for this project and learning about the implications of
this project I feel that we should continue in good faith and hope that the
technology is never used for non-medicinal purposes. My grandmother suffers from
parkinsons disease and there is nothing I would like more than to see a cure
developed through gene therepy for her disease and others like it. In my opinion
this project should continue full steaam ahead until it is finished. |