How does Vietnam go on the map of human genes?

The human gene map has just been completed by scientists around the world after the chromosome (chromosome) No. 1 - the longest chromosome in 23 chromosomes, was successfully decoded. What is the meaning of this event for the world sciences in general and for the Vietnamese scientific community in particular?

DNA model (Photo: good.pasteur)

Assoc. Prof. Dr. LE TRAN BINH, Director of the Institute of Biotechnology (Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology), said:

- The actual length of chromosome 1 is 263 million nucleotides and is genetically responsible for 149 known traits. This is an important progress in the process of implementing the Human Genome Project (HGP) implemented by 10 developed countries.

* It is known that decoding complete genome map is very important for the study of treatment of incurable diseases?

- Yes, if there is a map in hand, we will find the destination. The human body is an extremely complex and sophisticated apparatus. Having a gene map is a 'blueprint' of the control system for that machine.

Knowing the location of the gene, medics can repair and replace damaged genes. It is gene therapy that doctors have long dreamed of doing. If the gene has not been replaced, it is possible to produce proteins that are the product of that gene, and then put it into the body to replace the damaged or missing proteins due to gene dysfunction.

These are invaluable healing proteins created by the healthy genes themselves. The effectiveness of treatment for patients is very great and the commercial value for pharmaceutical companies is also very attractive. Therefore, companies do not regret the investment funding for these studies.

* In your opinion, what role do world scientists complete the map of human genome will play a role in scientific research in Vietnam?

- Globalization of information is an opportunity and challenge for our country. Understanding and understanding such information, like scouting to read maps, will do a good job of guiding the above-mentioned applications, can draw detailed maps of the endemic area. .

For example, the characteristics of the genome of Vietnamese people in general and of 54 ethnic groups living on the Vietnamese territory, which can guide the prevention and treatment more effectively and contribute to the development of science. .

Vietnam also has research topics using bone marrow-derived germ cells to treat diseases. Why dare not think about repairing, replacing or supplementing some healthy genes for these cells to treat blood diseases or other diseases of the critical disease group?

In Vietnam, there are studies of human genes in the direction of finding identifiable characteristics, serving for the identification of bloodline, identity identification and personal identification, there are studies to assess the characteristics of the genomes of ethnic groups. living on the territory of Vietnam, studies of changes in the human genome under the impact of toxic chemicals in the war.

Our country also has some research on genetic diseases in babies, children and adults. Science needs the accumulation of experience, data and knowledge. We do not ignore this but are paying attention, maybe more attention is needed soon.

* As you said, is the work remaining after decoding the complete map of the human genome still very large?

- Now science in this field is collectively referred to as 'post-genomic', or generally speaking , the 'omics' era of life science. Finding out the biological function of over 50,000 genes is a job that requires a lot of labor, money and expert knowledge.

Even if most of their functions are known, the study of their interactions and their systemic nature is the decisive step.

It can be easily compared as follows: reading the nucleotide sequence is like a child who has just completed the first semester of grade 1, meaning that the face of the letters and spelling any article in a newspaper, but surely the pupil who hasn't finished the first grade has not understood the meaning of many words, sentences and whole lessons.

Genome mapping at the current level is a bit more advanced in knowing which pages have what lessons, ie, all the first grade knows a few more sentences and page numbers. The rest is to understand the entire newspaper.

Not only that but also editing, ie fixing errors, cutting off, adding content to the newspaper to ensure quality. The scientific path has to go as long as the path of the first grade kid to strive to become a good editor.

HUNG HUNG