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Beyond that, knowing the code for a gene doesn't mean you know what protein it produces in the body, or what that protein does, or how it interacts with other proteins--vital information if you want to know how the genetic code locked in our cells ends up constructing and maintaining a fully functioning human being...
Given this seemingly overwhelming ignorance, why is everyone making such a fuss? Because laying out the biochemical code for all our genes, however many there turn out to be, and locating them within the 23 chromosomes in the human genome may turn out to be the necessary first step to solving all these mysteries. The hope is that the completed genome will enable scientists to lay bare the genetic triggers for hundreds of diseases--from Alzheimer's to diabetes to heart disease--and to devise exquisitely sensitive diagnostic tests. It will help pharmaceutical companies create drugs tailored to a patient...
Hidden somewhere in the remaining 98,000 base pairs are instructions that govern how much protein gets churned out--an essential clue for developing eventual treatments for diabetics. But before the public project's data began going up on GenBank, finding the hidden code would have been a daunting task. "To isolate the DNA and do all the sequencing would have taken a highly trained Ph.D. a year or two," says Altshuler, "an ungodly, unacceptable amount of work...
Following his lead, HGS scientists are ignoring most of the genetic code and concentrating on the mRNA that puts the code into action. During the 1990s the company amassed a huge library of mRNA and used microarrays to see which of these molecular snippets was active in disease. Haseltine's scientists were able to isolate 10 proteins, made from strands of mRNA, that are active in the healing of intractable wounds. Of these, nine were discarded because they may promote cancer...
...NIGMS hopes to construct a lexicon of shapes--barrels, doughnuts, globular spheres, molecular zippers and so on--that when mixed and matched will spell the shape of any gene's product. About 1,000 of these structures--and the genes that code for them--have already been cataloged...