A Million Human Genomes

[BillT]

This is something I want to do:

http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/07/president-obama-s-1-million-person-health-study-kicks-five-recruitment-centers?utm_campaign=news_daily_2016-07-07&et_rid=33537079&et_cid=616922

Biological research is going digital in at least two ways:

1) Digital analysis of data (of many kinds like: structure (microscopic and larger), behavior, environment, but most importantly genetically.

2) The genetic sequence is pretty close to a digital biological control mechanism. Nearly complete genetic sequences are fairly common now, becoming cheaper, and being obtained from many other species, as well as fossils.

There are about 3 billion base pairs (each equivalent to two (2) bits of information (choice of 4 bases rather than the two states in binary) in the human genome (all the genes in a single human)). This makes up the 23 chromosomes (each chromosome is a single separate molecule of DNA sequence). In the DNA sequence are encoded genes for making ~21,000 RNA transcripts that in turn encode different proteins. There are other kinds of genes too. How all the genes work together to in order to direct the development of a human from a single fertilized egg and how different diseases may be caused by obscure genetic variants is not fully understood. Computers now allow comparisons of whole genomes of different individuals within or between species, yielding lots of new information about what different sequences do.

The NIH wants to get 1,000,000 (million) different genome sequences from people and watch their health closely in order to determine which sequence goes with which problem. This presents big data and clinical security problems.

[Mugwump]

...amazing stuff being done now.....

[BallAquatics]

The NIH wants to get 1,000,000 (million) different genome sequences from people and watch their health closely in order to determine which sequence goes with which problem. This presents big data and clinical security problems.

That's a lot like what Stephan did when he was at OSU.....

After my doctorate in 1998, I moved to Columbus, Ohio for a postdoctoral fellowship in cancer research at the Ohio State University. In the fall of 2005, I became a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Molecular Virology, Immunology, and Medical Genetics. My scientific work in human molecular genetics focused on identifying genes and pathways for acute myeloid leukemia (PNAS 2001, Vol 98), juvenile vitamin B12 malabsorption (Nature Genetics, 2003 Vol 33 & PNAS 2005, Vol 102), chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CELL 2007, Vol 129), and colorectal cancer (Science 2008, Vol 321). Most recently, I had the pleasure to write a review with Prof. Ralph Gr?sbeck, who described Imerslund Gr?sbeck Syndrome back in 1960! How cool is that? We also published on one of the oldest human disease mutations to date (OJRD 2011). To see what else I have published, goto my Google Scholar page. Since 1998, I have published 50 peer-reviewed papers, including the results of a 12-year study on genetic vitamin B12 malabsorption.

http://www.swisstropicals.com/about-us/

Dennis

[BillT]

Wow. Does sound a lot like it.