Hi Stan,
Have you been giving any thought to BioTech companies as potential Gorillas, Kings, or Princes?
I've been reading about the Genome Mapping Project and have wondered if the new treatments that will eventually appear as a result of the genomics study might represent discontinuous innovation in certain areas. For example, I heard last night that there is the potential to "grow" new arteries in the heart using gene therapy, eliminating the need for bypass surgery.
I have owned and traded a stock called Human Genome Sciences (HGSI) and they seem to be particularly well positioned in this area. Here's an article from CNN....
>>Scientists sequence first human chromosome
December 1, 1999
Web posted at: 3:33 p.m. EST (2033 GMT)
(CNN) -- As the century draws to a close, scientists say a new book is being written
that will change the way we see ourselves. It starts with the inaugural results of
the Human Genome Project, which has sequenced the first human chromosome.
The second smallest, chromosome 22, was chosen to be sequenced first because it
is one of the most densely packed, with 33.5 million pieces, or chemical components.
The achievement, made by a group of scientists from England, the United States,
Canada, Sweden and Japan, is published in the journal Nature. It is an important
step forward for the $3 billion Human Genome Project, which is working to detail
the tens of thousands of genes in humans.
Researchers were able to find only 97 percent of the chromosome's genetic
material, but the results are considered complete for now.
"For the first time we can see the entire landscape of a human chromosome, the
basic unit of human inheritance, how the genes are organized, how they're laid out on
the chromosome," said Dr. Francis Collins, chair of the National Human Genome
Research Institute.
"I think this is probably the most important scientific effort that mankind has ever
mounted," he said. "That includes splitting the atom and going to the moon."
The human genetic pattern, or genome, is a biological map laying out the sequence of
3 billion pairs of chemicals that make up the DNA in each cell. All human DNA is
contained within 23 pairs of chromosomes.
In the center of any normal human cell there are 46 X-shaped chromosomes. Within
each chromosome is bundled a double-stranded helix of DNA. That is where human
genes reside. These genes carry instructions for everything from hair color and
height to how the brain is organized.
More than 30 human disorders are already associated with changes to genes of
chromosome 22. These include a form of leukemia, disorders of fetal development
and the nervous system, and schizophrenia.
Already researchers are testing gene therapies to correct misfirings and to make
cells work correctly. Scientists hope these therapies may one day be reliable
enough to treat diseases without the sometimes debilitating side effects of some
drugs.
This milestone is by no means the end of research, scientists say.
"What happens now is a whole host of fascinating experimental challenges to figure
out. What do these genes do individually, and how do they work together to do all
the things we humans are capable of?" said Collins.
Researchers will also look at how differences in our individual genomes lead to the
development of disease or protect against particular disorders.
"The first benefit will be diagnosis: in other words, the identification, particularly
the early identification, of disease."
Scientists expect the decoding of the rest of the chromosomes to come quickly. The
next one may be No. 7.
"One down, the others to go," said Ian Dunham, a biochemist with the Sanger Center
in Cambridge, England, and lead author of the Nature report. "It's a great relief to
have it (chromosome 22) finished."
Scientists expect to have sequenced the other chromosomes by next spring, a
milestone they say is hard to overemphasize.
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