Genetic Research - a hot topic, Genetic Engineering - not so simple

[Guest guest]

The following quotes are from the Naval Academy Web site. URLs given

at bottom.

The point of interest is that the context of where a gene is placed

can determine what the gene does. Precise placement of a gene is

difficult, and we do not yet know what effect the context will have on

the expression of the gene. This makes attempts at genetic

engineering very risky for the subject of a genetic engineering

experiment.

The Navy is not addressing human experimentation in these remarks;

however, we need to address it, as we may well be the experiment.

Since so many trillions of dollars await he who translates key areas

of the genome first, and perhaps world domination through biowarfare,

it's even possible that the information so assiduously collected at

DOD and VA hospitals on the victims of Gulf War Illness over the past

8 years (without trying to help them recover) have provided bits and

pieces of the cryptographic code required to interpret the genome.

(Well, we are fast approaching the year 2000.)

" Naval Academy policy is to promote and maintain an environment in

which research activities

contribute to the professional growth of midshipmen and faculty.

Research not only enhances

scholarship but also contributes to national technical excellence. "

" Sponsored Research

Decrypting the Language of the Genome

Researcher: Assistant Professor W. Bodnar,

SC496 Student (Midshipman 1/C Liotta, USN), SC432 Class

(24 students)

Sponsor: National Institutes of Health Academic Research Enhancement

Award (AREA Grant)

Analysis of human DNA sequences has indicated that the noncoding DNA

has characteristics of a

language which might be involved in the regulation of how, when, and

where the coding sequences

are expressed as proteins, and as we begin to sequence the human

genome we must also begin to

decipher the language of the genome. Ultimately, therefore, the genome

project is a cryptography

problem. I suggest that the key to reading the language of the genome

will be found in other

disciplines such as linguistics or cryptography which use statistical

methods that focus on related

function to deduce related structure.

Cryptographic methods have already been applied to deduce a basic

vocabulary of the genomic

language. We will continue to use statistical methods to determine

similarities in the language by

which seven model viruses can reprogram the cell cycle, then define

similarities in the programming

languages of those viruses and their host cells.

Students in the Biochemistry course participate by analyzing the

molecular steps in the regulation of a

single viral or cellular regulatory gene using the biochemical

literature, and independent research

students analyze molecular " language " by which the individual genes

interact into the genetic control

network that regulates organismal growth, viral infection, and

carcinogenesis. "

Taken from the following URLs:

http://www.nadn.navy.mil/AcResearch/sumres97/

http://www.nadn.navy.mil/AcResearch/sumres97/CHEMDEPT.htm

Rick

http://www.compuage.com/~rdharrison/Index.html