A gene map of a Korean male is completed.
Seoul National University's Genomic Medicine Institute announced on 8 July that a group of scientist team, led by professor Seo Jeong-Seon has sequenced an entire gene map of a Korean male in his thirties.
Korea hereby becomes a nation that completed a map of the entire human genetic structure for the fourth time in the world after the US, the UK and China.
The findings (A highly annotated whole-genome of a Korean individual) were published in the 'Nature' on 9 July.
Scientists made use of recent technical advances to home in on DNA sequences, single nucleotide polymorphisms(SNPs) that were unique to the man.
SNPs is a DNA sequence variation occurring when a single nucleotide-A, T, C, or G-in the genome(or other shared sequence) that differs between members of a species (or between paired chromosomes in an individual).
The team detected more than 3.45 million SNPs in the Korean man's gene map and a number of these have been associated in the past to various cancers such as diabetes, Alzheimer's disease and rheumatoid arthritis.
Professor Seo Jeong-Seon said, "These findings can help doctors make more accurate diagnoses and will provide a stepping-stone for 'Asian 100 genom project' producing draft genom sequences of 50 individuals a year."
This research project, in which Dr. S.Kingsmore(the US's National Center for Genome Resources), Dr. G.Church(Harvard University's Faculty of Genetics) and Dr. Charles Lee(Harvard University's Facluty of Pathology) have coparticipated, was sponsored by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology(MEST), Macrogene and Korea Green Cross.<헬스코리아뉴스>
