Eye on DNA Headlines for 5 August 2007

by Dr. Hsien-Hsien Lei
Posted August 5, 2007 in Eye on DNA Headlines

• Mendel’s Garden #17, a collection of genetics blogging, is up at ScienceRoll!
• John Hawks continues the discussion of who should and should not have been included in the initial phase of the Personal Genome Project. He votes for Larry King, I think I’d vote for Ellen DeGeneres.
• Fred Sanger, winner of two chemistry Nobel Prizes and the “father of genome sequencing” has donated his notebooks to the Wellcome Trust.

  The 35 beige books – with yellowing pages and Sanger’s careful blue-ink handwriting – give crucial insights into his thinking as he carried out work that transformed medical science, first by unravelling the structure of a protein, insulin, and later by working out the DNA of a living being, in this case a virus. Both were scientific firsts. The DNA techniques of Sanger – who will be 89 a week tomorrow – are now used by gene sequencers throughout the world. If his books were sold on the open market, they would be worth millions.

• Thank you to Mary Emma at Home Biz Notes who named me a Rockin’ Girl blogger.
• Henry Porter and a bunch of readers have commented in the Guardian on the proposal for British police to collect abandoned DNA without cause.

  …this widening of the DNA database for minor misdemeanours confirms the pattern of attack on us all.

Tags: genetics, genes, dna, police, britain, uk, crime, genome, genomics, Fred Sanger, mendel’s garden

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