Word: dr
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...million years since we hominids separated from apes, our DNA has evolved less than 2%. But in the next century we'll be able to alter our DNA radically, encoding our visions and vanities while concocting new life-forms. When Dr. Frankenstein made his monster, he wrestled with the moral issue of whether he should allow it to reproduce: "Had I the right, for my own benefit, to inflict the curse upon everlasting generations?" Will such questions require us to develop new moral philosophies...
...some 10 million biochemical "beacons" found along the human genome. By comparing the DNA of many individuals in and around these signposts, Genset hopes to pick out specific genes whose malfunctions actually cause disease. It has already begun to work. Using this technique, says Genset chief genomics officer Dr. Daniel Cohen, the company has found two different genes involved in prostate cancer. Cohen points out that the 20 most common diseases, which kill about 80% of the population, are probably linked to some 200 genes out of the body's 100,000. It only makes sense, he says, to look...
They were hardly the sort of couple you would expect to have trouble with prenatal testing. The father, Dallas geneticist Dr. Paul Billings, was the author of pioneering studies about genetic screening and its problems. The mother, Suzi, was also a physician. When she became pregnant at 37, she not only opted for amniocentesis--mainly to check for Down syndrome, an increased risk for children of mothers her age--but also for a newer genetic probe for an inheritable neuromuscular disease. She knew that a member of her family carried the gene for it and realized she might have...
...hybridization] and chips," as they whimsically call these new tools, to look for any number of genetic characteristics, including the more elusive web of genes that may lurk behind familial patterns of heart disease and stroke, cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer's, various kinds of mental disorders and even gingivitis. Says Dr. Wayne Grody, head of the DNA diagnostic lab at the UCLA Medical Center: "We'll soon be governed by a new paradigm--genomic medicine--with tests and ultimately treatment for every disease linked to the human genome...
...fertilized eggs are subjected to intense DNA analysis. Only those that pass the test are implanted. Says Dr. Jeffrey Botkin, a University of Utah pediatrics professor: "Instead of aborting a fetus, you're flushing down a bunch of 16-cell embryos--which, to a lot of folks [who oppose abortion], is a lot less of a problem...