Man's best friend...

The species name is Canis familiaris. It refers to our oldest companion and friend, the dog. Like us, it is classified as a eukaryote, having its genetic material stored in the nucleus of the cell. The genomes (full collection of genetic material) of two dogs, a Poodle named Shadow and a Boxer named Tasha, were sequenced in 2003 and 2004.

For genome scientists the dog is interesting because they get the same diseases we do, including cancer, heart disease and epilepsy. Dogs are also striking in their remarkable diversity in appearance and temperament. There are very small and very large ones, gentle and exceptionally vicious ones. We have of course bred them to be like that.

The politics of cloning

On a recent visit to South Africa I was fortunate enough to be given access to interview a number of high-level academics, journal editors, and science journalists on questions concerning the social and ethical implications of genomic technology in Southern Africa.  What I found surprised me.

Africa is discussing the same issues as everyone else.  Everyone, the world over, seems fascinated by the bio-safety, health, and commercial implications of genetically modified food.  And, (almost) everyone in the higher echelons of academia, the world over complains that the ‘general public’ remains misinformed, polarised, and altogether unable to grasp the science behind genetic modification.  Although these interviews could not prove it, it would appear that (nearly) everyone, the world over, is fascinated by the potential for genomic engineering to provide vaccines, diagnostics, and cures for the diseases that they are most burdened with.  The difference between these discussions, and those elsewhere, are the diseases with highest prevalence in the population and the numbers (absolute and relative) of people affected by such diseases. 

Future pharmaceutical?

Dear Valli: you asked how it is that we commit an entire organisation to providing public education about genomes? Or, then, how much and for how long can we milk this cow you really mean to say? Technically forever, because there are millions of organisms to sequence, establishing the biochemical ordering of their DNA or RNA.

So far 180 organisms have been sequenced, including that of modern human beings, chimpanzees, dogs, cats, insects, worms, plants, protozoa, yeasts, bacteria and (ancient) archeabacteria. The harvest of information has been magnificent and enriches our understanding of life.

Dr Watson, in happier times

Nobel Laureate James Watson, co-discover of the double helical architecture of DNA, talks nonsense. There is no factual observational or experimental data of any measurable link between any human brain function ­ of which there are many ­ and a social construct called intelligence, of which there are, also, many.

This is what we know today: there is about a 2 per cent difference between modern human beings and our closest living ancestral relative the chimpanzee - using a crude DNA count. A portion of that DNA, we do not know how much of it, would explain the considerable differences in our brain size and specialisations, among other differences like stature.

The South African born Nobel Laureate Sydney Brenner once made a joke by asking what is left over if one subtracts the chimpanzee genome from the human one?

Genes that make it possible for language, he quipped and, he furthermore suggested, why not call them Chomsky genes ­ after the linguist Noam Chomsky.

"Take the HIV fight to them."

Take the HIV/AIDS fight to them, Former President Nelson Mandela urged as we were leaving: ‘Nothing that we have achieved in our country was without a fight. But I am too old now. You scientists must pick it up’ he remarked to his fellow Nobel Laureate David Baltimore.

Likely one of the most pre-eminent biologists specialising in viruses today, Baltimore briefed an obviously fascinated Mandela on what we know about the Human Immuno-deficiency Virus (HIV). It was a breathtaking preview of the full Nelson Mandela Science Lecture he was to give an hour later at WITS.

No spring chicken himself, Baltimore at 69 stepped off the flight that some morning, after two 11 hour-long flights from California. Most of us would wilt at the thought of such a travel schedule. None of this diminished the sharp edge of his intellect obvious to everyone who attended his lecture.

Micro RNA - a future blockbuster?

As Dr David Baltimore rose to speak a smoke and thunder of voices rattled the doors at the back of the Great Hall at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. Protestors outside had threatened to disrupt his presentation of the third annual Nelson Mandela Science Lecture.

Baltimore is the President Emeritus and Robert Andrews Millikan Professor of Biology of the California Institute of Technology. His work on the identification of reverse transcriptase – the mechanism by which retroviruses, like HIV, infect cells - earned him the 1975 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine at the age of 37.

Baltimore is in South Africa at the invitation of the Africa Genome Education Institute to speak on his experiences in searching for solutions to HIV.

Africa, with 10% of the world's population, has 60% of its infections. In 1994 South Africa, at the dawn of transition to majority rule, already had 850,000 people infected with HIV. In 2007, largely as a result of government negligence and the promotion of "alternative" remedies such as garlic and beetroot, there are 5.5 million South Africans who are HIV positive.

The discussion of HIV and AIDS in South Africa is not without controversy.