FiB Episode 34 - The Great Historical Document: The Human Genome
Friday, September 12, 2008 at 11:50PM Mark Gerstein endeavors to make sense our genome on its past and present course...
Host: Marc Pelletier
Guest: Mark Gerstein; Albert L. Williams Professor of Biomedical Informatics; Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry; Professor of Computer Science, Yale University. Gerstein Lab
In past shows, we've had Lee hood, the inventor of the DNA sequencer, and George Church who was among those personally involved in initiating the Human project. But getting the code and really understanding these human blueprints are entirely different problems. Our guest today, Mark Gerstein, is trying to make sense of it all, and his work among other things has revealed that the genome is more than just a blueprint, or list of parts, but a rich historical text about our past.
Reader Comments (3)
THANK YOU!
From a Second Year Biochemistry Student at the University of Technology in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
'Having just completed my mid-semester tests (Cell and Molecular Systems/Animal Physiology) I greatly appreciate the truly MOTIVATIONAL spirit that FiB gives me!'
'Having recently found this podcast I am completely blown away by hearing the voices of the names that I read in my study as journal articles and text.'
'This podcast brings my university study alive and with the jovial nature of Marc brings the reality of the world of BioTech to life.'
Keep up the great work.
As I have an interest in Candida Albicans, could your interview someone in the medical mycology field? I hear the genome of Thrush is pretty crazy?
Cheers,
A.J.K.
Thank you for your kind words, much appreciated! I really feel very fortunate to speak with these guests.
Andre Nantel from FiB5 actually supervised the hand curated annotation of the C. albicans genome. And Leonard Guarente of FiB2 made all his famous discoveries on gene expression and anti-aging genes in S. cerevisiae. The yeasts have made enormous contributions. Susan Lindquist (FiB1) has done some great work on prions and parkinson's using yeast.
Randy Schekman, world leading yeast geneticist, has figured out the molecular mechanisms for a large portion of how a cell works:
http://www.hhmi.org/research/investigators/schekman.html
We should definitely do a yeast show...
mm.. interesting )