The Human Genome Project is a programme of the American government to decode a genome of a human. It was started in 1990 and was oficially over in 2003. The scientists who took place in this programme wanted to decode the sequence of the base pairs in human DNA. This could be used for example for personalised medicine, because the decoded DNA would directly show if the person would have any problem with this drug.
The beginning of the HGP
In the 1980's several professors of the UC Santa Cruz started to discuss the advantages of a decoded DNA. The path was opened for the HGP and the interest in this sequencing grew. The American government started to give financial support and in 1990 over thousand scientists from over 40 countries began to decode DNA. The project had the aim to decode a genome completly by 2005. The project caused that other countries started their own HGPs in collarboration with the others. In 2000 the chromosome 21 was sequenced completly what gave a lot information about Trisomy 21 and the resulting Down syndrome. In 2001 the Genome seemed to be sequenced completly and in 2003 the results got published and the HGP stoped.
The use of the HGP
The complete decoding of our genome tells us a lot about ourselves. We can find out about diseases that change our DNA or tumours in form of cancer. It tells us a lot about the evolution of the humans and the molecular medicine can work work much more effective because we know already how the body will react on the drug. It would also help in the genetic enginiering to know the human genome completly to calculate the outcome of the experiment more percisely. You could calculate the long term effects of special substances for the human body on the computer. You could just run the used information combined with your DNA sequence through the computer and get the results within hours or even minutes. The problem is at the moment that there isn't really enough combined computer power to calculate those results, bt it is only a matter of time until we fixed that issue.
Ethical issues with the decoding of DNA
The main problem would be that this decoding would also bring a new form of crime. The range could go from illegal cloning until faked evidences on crime scenes. To make the police to believe that a specific person committed a crime you would have to find out or steal the DNA sequence and for example find out the finger prints. Also you could start to influence the DNA of unborn children to "mix" the best DNA sequence and plant it in the uterus of the mother. The evolution could become influenced in total and humans could get bred. The individual person would have to protect their DNA sequence like their credit card number or social security number.
In conclusion I can say that there are a lot of advantages in the medicine which could make a lot of processes much easier. It could help to examine special disease and to find out more about the body, but there could also happen a lot of bad things to the decoded DNA sequences. You would really have to protect your DNA sequence that nobody can copy your identity. It is hard to say to what extent other people could mess with your DNA, but it is still risky if everybody has access to his decoded DNA.
The beginning of the HGP
In the 1980's several professors of the UC Santa Cruz started to discuss the advantages of a decoded DNA. The path was opened for the HGP and the interest in this sequencing grew. The American government started to give financial support and in 1990 over thousand scientists from over 40 countries began to decode DNA. The project had the aim to decode a genome completly by 2005. The project caused that other countries started their own HGPs in collarboration with the others. In 2000 the chromosome 21 was sequenced completly what gave a lot information about Trisomy 21 and the resulting Down syndrome. In 2001 the Genome seemed to be sequenced completly and in 2003 the results got published and the HGP stoped.
The use of the HGP
The complete decoding of our genome tells us a lot about ourselves. We can find out about diseases that change our DNA or tumours in form of cancer. It tells us a lot about the evolution of the humans and the molecular medicine can work work much more effective because we know already how the body will react on the drug. It would also help in the genetic enginiering to know the human genome completly to calculate the outcome of the experiment more percisely. You could calculate the long term effects of special substances for the human body on the computer. You could just run the used information combined with your DNA sequence through the computer and get the results within hours or even minutes. The problem is at the moment that there isn't really enough combined computer power to calculate those results, bt it is only a matter of time until we fixed that issue.
Ethical issues with the decoding of DNA
The main problem would be that this decoding would also bring a new form of crime. The range could go from illegal cloning until faked evidences on crime scenes. To make the police to believe that a specific person committed a crime you would have to find out or steal the DNA sequence and for example find out the finger prints. Also you could start to influence the DNA of unborn children to "mix" the best DNA sequence and plant it in the uterus of the mother. The evolution could become influenced in total and humans could get bred. The individual person would have to protect their DNA sequence like their credit card number or social security number.
In conclusion I can say that there are a lot of advantages in the medicine which could make a lot of processes much easier. It could help to examine special disease and to find out more about the body, but there could also happen a lot of bad things to the decoded DNA sequences. You would really have to protect your DNA sequence that nobody can copy your identity. It is hard to say to what extent other people could mess with your DNA, but it is still risky if everybody has access to his decoded DNA.