“Cracking the Code of Life: The race to decode human DNA” Video Questions
(A video on the Human Genome Project)
NOVA – © 2001
“When you look at the mirror, you don’t see DNA or RNA. You see proteins and the action of proteins. We are the product of our proteins and their activity.” Craig Venter, “Cracking the Code of Life” Video
1)How much of a banana’s DNA is similar to ours? ______
2)4 and some billion years ago – 1st speck of life on warm surface of a ______
3)Raw DNA looks like what in raw form? Eric Lander – geneticist found that it looks like ______
4)Human beings only have ______as many genes as the fruit fly.
5)DNA chain in ______cell of the body
6)Size of DNA – 10 angstroms = ______of a meter. Stretch out all of it – run ______of miles
7)Every human baby born is ______% identical to every other human baby in the world.
8)DNA fingerprinting? The old way?
9)Only about 1% of the ______are active.
10)Revolutionized technology – ______letters every day
11)Boeing 777 – ______parts. Genome project – getting a parts list, but that’s all you have. It’s important to have, but that doesn’t mean you know how to put it together.
12)Allison and Tim and son Hayden – something not right – something clearly wrong by time he was 1 year old. Laughed all the time. Never crawled or ate with his hands. Started regressing. Started missing developmental milestones. Slowly getting worse – ______Disease
13)Genes create proteins, and the protein that is supposed to take care of fat is not produced, so fat builds up in the brain and begins to crush …… All because of ______letter
14)Hayden gone blind, can’t eat solid food, has seizures as much as ______times a day. Only one outcome. Most die by age ______.
15)Tim’s identical twin brother, Charlie, and wife Blythe, who have 2 girls, including little ______, who startled easily just like Hayden always did. Cameron had Tay Sachs also.
16)Usually in ______groups and then it’s only a ______thing. All 4 members of the couples carry the gene.
17)Hayden Lord died a few months before his ______birthday.
18)The promise of the human genome project – an ______for parents, doctors, etc. about genetic diseases. Spot these catastrophes while they’re still insignificant dots on the gene.
19)Craig Venter thought he could find the human genome much faster than the other science team.
20)1990 – he was a government scientist
21)Human ______chopped into tiny pieces
22)Laser bounces ______off of each tiny bit of DNA and the color that it sees represents a ______.
23)Venter’s dream was to have several of these machines going at once, so he quit his government job and started a company called ______, which means speed.
24)Served time in navy and was on ______, where it’s decided if people will live or die. Saw a lot of people die.
25)Returned in ______and wanted to make use of this gift.
26)He didn’t like the attitude of the government team – planned to take 15 years.
27)Venter said his team would finish in ______years! So the race began.
28)Gov’t team stepped it up. Francis Collins in charge.
29)Fall 1999 – meeting to check out ideas at ______
30)New state of the art $300,000 DNA ______machine. Getting all kinds of new equipment, but not knowing how to make it work.
31)Cystic fibrosis discussion:
-Riley Demose – ______days old – Cathy got the call that Riley had tested positive for cystic fibrosis. Half of all patients die before age ______
-Proteins are 3-dimensional because ______are 3-d.
-Every protein is given a shape, which defines them and what they ______.
-In the protein world, “your shape is your ______”.
-Riley is missing ______letters out of ______, but the consequences are huge. The protein is misshapen, and lung cells can’t do their job. His lung cells will not let ______out of the cell, causing it to be trapped in the cell. The lung cell becomes sticky and covered in ______. If doctors could just get the shape of the protein right, then it would be recognized and allowed in the cell to do its job.
-Just finding the letters was ______-dimensional – in Kansas, so to speak. Fixing the proteins from the letters is ______-dimensional.
-Toni also has CF, but she developed it later. Didn’t fit the profile. Was told she might not survive beyond her ______birthday, and now she’s in her mid-40s. She still has to go to hospital to get ______cleaned out. Still has the mistake in the genes, but she has something that most patients don’t have.
-Craig Gerard, Toni’s doctor, says that “no gene acts in isolation”. Could she have some good genes that are helping her?
-Dr. Gerard looking for ______in Toni that might be helping her. Maybe they could bottle it and give to Riley and other CF patients.
32)From the genes, you get to the ______, and then you have to understand what? ______- All the components and how they connect to each other.
33)A human being only has ______or so genes, only about ______as many as a fruit fly. That’s bothersome. But the difference is that our genes ______. One gene in fruit fly might only make ____ proteins, while one in human might make _____ proteins, and then they can ______or ______or ______, causing different functions.
34)Compare this idea to musical notes and making a short tune to a complex symphony, and we’re not good at hearing the ______of the symphony yet.
35)Must complete the ______list of all the genes before we can do any of the next step.
36)Male pattern baldness search – look at the gene’s letters for hair for bald guys. Compare the letters with those of men with hairs. Look at brothers’ genes so that the only differences may be the ______difference. If you use related people, it’s easier.
Why? ______
37)Iceland – little island with tiny population of ______people, mostly all descended from ______of several years ago. They have a fantastic ______history, almost everyone’s family tree, and it’s on a database.
-Lady with osteoarthritis - Got sick at 12 and ______of her family members had to have hip replacements b/c it was so bad. This is the family that the decoding people were looking for – Why? ______
-They started combining family trees, medical records, and DNA to learn what’s going on.
38)What’s the problem with everyone seeing your medical records? ______
39)And, should someone have the right to see all of this and those of your relatives? ______They say that it is encoded with SS# and protected without names, and the DNA samples (blood samples) are ______.
40)Movie clip “Gattaca” – everyone’s DNA (future diary) is available and most babies are ______produced. The main character in the movie was conceived the “______” way.
41)Making gene chips – came from babies. A single chip will allow you to test ______babies for certain diseases.
42)Knowing is ______; knowing early is ______– as long as there is something that you can ______
43)What if it took 20-50 years to find a cure for a disease you were going to get?Would you still want to know? ______
44)What if the test just tells you that you may get the disease? May and will are different.
45)Alyssa and Lori and Melanie (younger sister who died of ovarian cancer). Died in 1983.
-Alyssa then got breast cancer at age 34. She did well, but then found another lump in 1996.
-There are links b/t breast and ovarian cancer – brca1 and brca2 – perfectly healthy normal genes that we all have. Sometimes there is a mutation on them – ______letters missing and genes are reconfigured.
-Causes a very high cancer risk – 80%
-Lori went to be tested – she was fine. However, Alyssa does carry the mutated gene, so she’s wondering what day she’ll get sick.
-Alyssa’s son and daughter could also be carrying the gene – ______% chance
-Alana found lump in her own breast in senior year of high school (______years old). Lump was ______, but Alana decided not to have the test that year.
46)Do we want to know? And, can we live with the answer of maybe or not? ______
47)In “Gattaca”, they could choose the baby that they wanted, one without baldness, obesity, etc. We have the beginnings of the ability to do this today.
-If we can do this, can we also add in the eyesight of a hawk? Not right now.
-It’s a very complex machine, and going in with a monkey wrenchcould break the machine.
-But, we do it with plants and some animals. Does that make is okay though….
48)What about with humans? How do you feel about this topic? Please support your answer.
______
49)Who won the race of finding the Human Genome first? ______
Journal Questions
- What is the significance of knowing the human genome?
- Do you think we have to be careful with the power that knowing it gives us? Explain.
- What can we do with this knowledge?
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