“Cracking the Code of Life”

Find these notes in your notebooks.Write out the answers to the questions, and complete your

notes.

1. How many of our genes are identical to a banana?

2. What is the secret of Life?

• Human beings have twice as many genes as fruit flies.

* The formula for a human being is 3 BILLION steps long3,000,000,000

3. Name two facts about DNA

* 99.9% of every baby is identical to every other baby.* That means that we are only 0.1% different from each other (1/10 of 1%)

• It took 10 years of research to find the genes that cause Huntington’s disease.

4. What percent of our genes are actually active?

• The Human Genome project is about getting the parts list.

• Tay Sacks disease slowly destroys the person’s brain.

5. How many letters does it take to be wrong for there to be a serious problem?

* The promise of the Human Genome Project: * Be an early warning system for a host of

diseases and disorders.

• Craig Venter – Government scientist who opened Celera Genomics.

6. How does the computer recognize the genetic code?

• Francis Collins – Leader of the Human Genomics Project for the public (government)

7. How does competition benefit the public?

8. What is the problem with automation?

9. The genetic difference between any two people is:

• Average difference between two chimps is much higher than the average differences between 2 people.

* November 1999* 1 Billion (1,000,000,000) Base Pairs complete

* 1/3 of the entire genome complete

* Be aware of one-sided arguments• Example: Patents of the Genome

10. Are patents of the genome good or bad, and why?

• Finding cures is harder than sequencing DNA

* Manipulating genes may not be possible* Not to mention HIGHLY controversial* Manipulating proteins may be the answer.

11. Describe a protein – what it looks like and how it works.

12. How is protein therapy supposed to work?

Human Genome Project

DNA Genes Proteins Base Pairs A, T, G, C “Parts” Start to put How they go

the parts to work together

• Humans have 30,000 or so genes, not 100,000 as thought.

13. Why is Iceland such a good place to study genes?

*Cost-Benefit of Iceland’s medical information and family tree.

14. Should people have access to that much information? Why or why not.

* BRCA1 and BRCA2 = genes for breast cancer. * If you have the mutation, then you have an 80% chance of getting cancer.

• Entire Genome sequenced in June 2000 (Complete)

* 3 Billion letters and only 1% are genes, the rest is “stuff”.