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{bio,medical} informatics


Thursday, June 08, 2000

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Yahoo! News Researcher Calls for Laws to Protect Genetic Information
"As researchers race to complete mapping the human set of genes, one of the project's leaders sounded an alarm Tuesday about the practical implications of this knowledge, and called for legislation to protect individuals from misuse of genetic information. ``We cannot wait until we have finished sequencing the human genome to pass important legislation that protects a person from being discriminated against--by health insurance companies or by employers. We do not need hundreds to thousands of casualties before acting on this important issue,'' Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Human Genome Project said here Tuesday."

redux [03.21.00]
BBC News Tests spark fears of genetic underclass
"The UK Government is considering allowing insurance companies to use genetic testing to assess a person's risk of inheriting a serious illness."

"One opponent of the wider use of genetic testing said it was part of a "terrifying trend" that would lead to a culture of "cherry picking"."
redux [02.25.00]
Science U.K. Plans Major Medical DNA Database
[summary - can be viewed for free once registered]
"Following the examples of Iceland, Sweden, and Estonia, the United Kingdom is drawing up plans to create a national database linking the DNA of 500,000 of its citizens to their medical records and lifestyle details. Its main goal is to tease apart the genetic and environmental components of conditions such as cardiovascular disease and cancer and, eventually, to come up with new drugs to treat--or even prevent--these conditions. An expert panel is currently hammering out a strategy for setting up the database and is due to report its recommendations next month.”

redux [02.13.00]
The Daily Davos Beyond the Genome
"By the spring of this year, the first draft of the human genome -- the sequence of all the genetic instructions needed to make up a human being -- will be published on the Web. But that is only the end of the beginning. Scientists still have very little idea of what most of the 100,000 or so human genes actually do, and finding out will take them into a very different area of research.

The raw material of the genome program has been anonymous samples of DNA, manipulated by complex laboratory machines that turn out information like a production line turns out widgets. But the new era of post-genome research involves analysing real people and their confidential medical records. The records are needed to match the genes that people carry with the diseases they may develop. Only then will gigabytes of genetic data into new treatments for cancer or heart disease. And that is why socialised healthcare is a vital part of post-genome research.

Countries such as the U.S., which provide healthcare through private enterprise, are useless for this sort of genetic inquiry. Only those countries which have organized the delivery of healthcare to their population in a way that is independent of the marketplace have built up the universal medical records necessary to make sense of the patterns of disease."


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Bioinformatics will be at the core of biology in the 21st century. In fields ranging from structural biology to genomics to biomedical imaging, ready access to data and analytical tools are fundamentally changing the way investigators in the life sciences conduct research and approach problems. Complex, computationally intensive biological problems are now being addressed and promise to significantly advance our understanding of biology and medicine. No biological discipline will be unaffected by these technological breakthroughs.

BIOINFORMATICS IN THE 21st CENTURY

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