Word: dna
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...estimated 95% of those letters fall into the category of "junk DNA"--molecular gobbledygook that spells nothing at all. Discovering where the actual genes begin and end, therefore, is key to understanding their functions--and DoubleTwist has taken a step in that direction. Using a Sun Microsystems supercomputer, the company has taken raw data downloaded from the public project's growing online database and put them through a computational wringer...
...result: a kind of road map to the genome, showing where along its long spirals of DNA the genes are located--65,000 of them with reasonable confidence, an additional 40,000 tagged more tentatively. For $10,000 a year, subscribers to DoubleTwist's website can read portions of the map; for $650,000 they can download the whole thing. And while the information is less detailed and thus less useful than what the gene sequencers will ultimately provide, DoubleTwist managed to get there first...
...Down syndrome, for example, victims somehow acquire a third copy of the chromosome, whereas most people have just two. But exactly which of the 225 or so genes on chromosome 21 trigger the scores of physical and cognitive symptoms typical of the syndrome--or whether it's simply DNA overload from having an extra chromosome--isn't clear, nor will it be without lots of additional research...
...bioeconomy opened for business in 1953, when Francis Crick and James Watson identified the double-helix structure of DNA. The bioeconomy has been in its first quarter ever since, and completion and publication of the decoded human genome marks the end of this gestation period...
...GENE PROGRAMMERS Digital genome maps will allow lab technicians to create customized prescriptions, altering individual genes by rewriting lines of computer code. After scanning your DNA for defects, doctors will use gene therapy and "smart" molecules to prevent a variety of diseases, including certain cancers...