Harvard:Biophysics 101/2009/Project: Difference between revisions
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*A starting point for this kind of work is to cross-reference the SNPedia, which catalogs easily/cheaply-testable human SNPs associated with some phenotype, and OMIM, which contains a wealth of information on the heritability of genes associated with those SNPs. GeneTests[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/projects/GeneTests/static/whatsnew/wndz3.shtml] can also be used to gather up-to-date information about medically relevant genetic tests currently able to be offered. The program would focus mostly on recessive inheritance patterns, with X-linked recessive traits providing an additional layer of complexity. In addition, due to the non-standard formatting of heritability information in OMIM, parsing the data in a systematic way would provide an interesting (and I think "do-able") challenge. | *A starting point for this kind of work is to cross-reference the SNPedia, which catalogs easily/cheaply-testable human SNPs associated with some phenotype, and OMIM, which contains a wealth of information on the heritability of genes associated with those SNPs. GeneTests[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/projects/GeneTests/static/whatsnew/wndz3.shtml] can also be used to gather up-to-date information about medically relevant genetic tests currently able to be offered. The program would focus mostly on recessive inheritance patterns, with X-linked recessive traits providing an additional layer of complexity. In addition, due to the non-standard formatting of heritability information in OMIM, parsing the data in a systematic way would provide an interesting (and I think "do-able") challenge. | ||
*Check out our personal pages for an example of this idea using male-pattern baldness, and for a discussion of how something like this might be implemented in a systematic way, and extended to genes not covered by available SNPs (will insert this info, and a hyperlink, shortly). | *Check out our personal pages for an example of this idea using male-pattern baldness, and for a discussion of how something like this might be implemented in a systematic way, and extended to genes not covered by available SNPs (will insert this info, and a hyperlink, shortly). | ||
^^^ | |||
Your idea of a genetically oriented "dating service" sparked my interest in our last class meeting and I think it's a good jumping-off point. It also seems like something we could do given what we have, which is really just computers and access to some existing genomes. I wrote a bit more about this idea in my [http://openwetware.org/wiki/User_talk:Benjamin_Leibowicz talk page] and I'm curious whether you think such an idea is a significant enough departure from our current situation to be considered Human 2.0, as what it would be doing is simply to allow a group of individuals to manipulate human evolution in a seemingly positive way through advanced information collection and processing. Doesn't this beg the question: should we instead be focusing on technologies that will allow us to manipulate the genome of an offspring in a way that prevents inheritance of genetic disorders where it would naturally occur? This seems to be realistic in the not-so-distant future and might make such a genetic dating service obsolete. What do you think? | |||
// Ben Leibowicz | |||
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Revision as of 20:54, 7 October 2009
Class Project Topics:
"SNPCupid" // Anna Turetsky & Joe Torella
- We decided to build on Anna's project idea for a genetic testing service which would allow couples to assess, before having children, what phenotypes those children might inherit (and with what probability). These phenotypes range from the medically relevant (i-cell disease, diabetes) to the cosmetic (male pattern baldness, eye color), to the beneficial (intelligence, athletic ability).
- A starting point for this kind of work is to cross-reference the SNPedia, which catalogs easily/cheaply-testable human SNPs associated with some phenotype, and OMIM, which contains a wealth of information on the heritability of genes associated with those SNPs. GeneTests[1] can also be used to gather up-to-date information about medically relevant genetic tests currently able to be offered. The program would focus mostly on recessive inheritance patterns, with X-linked recessive traits providing an additional layer of complexity. In addition, due to the non-standard formatting of heritability information in OMIM, parsing the data in a systematic way would provide an interesting (and I think "do-able") challenge.
- Check out our personal pages for an example of this idea using male-pattern baldness, and for a discussion of how something like this might be implemented in a systematic way, and extended to genes not covered by available SNPs (will insert this info, and a hyperlink, shortly).
^^^ Your idea of a genetically oriented "dating service" sparked my interest in our last class meeting and I think it's a good jumping-off point. It also seems like something we could do given what we have, which is really just computers and access to some existing genomes. I wrote a bit more about this idea in my talk page and I'm curious whether you think such an idea is a significant enough departure from our current situation to be considered Human 2.0, as what it would be doing is simply to allow a group of individuals to manipulate human evolution in a seemingly positive way through advanced information collection and processing. Doesn't this beg the question: should we instead be focusing on technologies that will allow us to manipulate the genome of an offspring in a way that prevents inheritance of genetic disorders where it would naturally occur? This seems to be realistic in the not-so-distant future and might make such a genetic dating service obsolete. What do you think? // Ben Leibowicz
Interesting Links:
- Genome Commons provides some good resources about interpretation of human genome variations.
