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With new SMRT DNA sequencing — and that's Single-Molecule Real-Time, not cutespeak for "smart" — it might soon be possible to get the complete details of your own genome for the price of an iPod. At long last, you'll be able to prove to the world that you truly are a beautiful and unique snowflake. That, however, is only the tip of the iceberg as far as DNA sequencing fun is concerned: What more could you do with intimate information about all 3 billion of your DNA base pairs? More »
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Medcal treatments will take a quantum leap forward once we can develop drugs that are genetically tailored to a specific individual. But to do that, we need a way to sequence someone's DNA quickly and cheaply. Today, it takes months and costs six figures. Pacific Biosciences' Single-Molecule, Real-Time (SMRT) DNA sequencer is going to change that. More »
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Now that everybody is talking about that show Cavemen, the question that genomics experts have been researching for the past couple of years is more relevant than ever: Do we have elements of homo neanderthalis in our present-day homo sapiens genomes? In plain English: are we the results of love matches between ancient humans and Neanderthals? New gene-sequencing techniques that work on DNA extracted from Neanderthal fossils have made this an answerable question, but still the scientists are arguing! Two recent, highly-reputable studies have looked at Neanderthal DNA and come up with radically different scenarios. One group, led by Max Planck scientist Richard Green, says the human genome is riddled with Neanderthal, which means the species did some intermingling. In fact, Green argues, there is actually less difference between ancient homo sapiens and Neanderthal than there is between different racial groups today. But another research group, led by Lawrence Berkeley Lab geneticist James Noonan, says that's absurd. It found no Neanderthal DNA in our pristine homo sapiens genome, and suggests that any offspring created by the two species had no significant impact on contemporary homo sapiens. Who should you believe? More »
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