Why is the genome project not yielding results faster?

Apr 5 2010

By Candy Lashkari

As the Human Genome Project reaches the 10 year landmark scientists are defending it. While the sequencing of the 3 billion letters in the human DNA took a long time the first draft of the human genome was presented ten years ago. Today it is possible to have your individual DNA mapped in a day and at the low cost of $5,000.

The multi billion dollar human DNA blueprint project which started on 26 June 2000 as a race between a public consortium and a private venture is soon to have its tenth anniversary. The human genome was expected to help clinical medicine a great deal, but the returns on the billions of dollars invested in the project so far have been rather modest.

John Shine, the executive director of the Garvan Institute of Medical Research, felt that the medical applications of the project were picking up momentum. Each week more genetic mutations were being linked with specific diseases making it possible for doctors to identify and treat the disease faster.

''When a new virus or bacteria, such as swine flu … becomes apparent, we have the technology to very quickly determine its complete sequence, and quickly develop a vaccine or a new way to prevent its spread,'' Professor Shine said.

New drugs to cure cancer, heart ailments, brain diseases and other common curses of humanity are expected to get a boost from the genome project. It has also proved a good diagnostic tool in case of individuals who have a higher risk of vulnerability to particular diseases. Individualized medical treatments have also been made possible for such patients.

In this week’s issue of Nature, the British science journal, Francis Collins said, “The consequences for clinical medicine... have thus far been modest.” Francis Collins led the public sector Human Genome Project or HGP.

“Some powerful new drugs have been developed for some cancers; genetic tests can predict whether people with breast cancer need chemotherapy; the major risk factors of macular degeneration [an eye disease] have been identified; and drug response can be predicted for more than a dozen drugs. But it is fair to say that the Human Genome Project has not yet directly affected the health care of most individuals.” said Collins.

His long time competitor on the Genome Project, US bio entrepreneur Craig Venter asks people to have more patience. Craig Venter says “The genome revolution is only just beginning. For one thing, the cost of cracking - "sequencing" - a genome has fallen astonishingly, by 14,000 times between 1999 and 2009.”

“The Human Genome Project (HGP) was funded with three billion dollars, or roughly a dollar for every base pair, or rung in the genetic ladder, and took 10 years to produce the rough draft, which was followed by a "polished" version in 2003.” said Venter.

Why is the genome project not yielding results faster? Although a veritable treasure of information and data on the human genome is now available, scientists are yet to make sense of all the data. There is a large amount of information which needs to be sorted and experimented on before actual results can be seen in application of medical treatment.