Bits of Mystery DNA, Far From ‘Junk,’ Play Crucial Role
At least four million gene switches that reside in sections of the human genome once thought to be inactive turn out to have critical functions in the body, researchers reported.
This another that I only recently read, but a fascinating read. A decade after the completion of the human genome project, start-up companies are using computer networking know-how to increase sequencing throughput in a race to inexpensive genome sequencing.
Cost of Gene Sequencing Falls, Raising Hopes for Medical Advances
The promise is that low-cost gene sequencing will lead to a new era of personalized medicine, yielding new approaches for treating cancers and other serious diseases. The arrival of such cures has been glacial, however, although the human genome was originally sequenced more than a decade ago.
Now that is changing, in large part because of the same semiconductor industry manufacturing trends that opened up consumer devices like the PC and the smartphone: exponential increases in processing power and transistor density are accompanied by costs that fall at an accelerating rate.
As a result, both new understanding and new medicines will arrive at a quickening pace, according to the biologists and computer scientists.
Source: The New York Times
Graduate student of Medical Physics at Stony Brook University. Boston University alumnus interested in medicine, biotech, art, design, and beautiful ideas.
