Watson's DNA Mapped

James Watson, a Nobel Laureate and the co-discoverer of the DNA double helix with Francis Crick, became the first person to get his own DNA sequenced. He was presented with the sequenced data by Jonathan Rothberg, Former Chairman of 454 Life Sciences.

Sequencing of Watson's DNA took two months and cost $1 million US. The two-month project was undertaken in collaboration between 454 Life Sciences Corp., that specializes in DNA sequencing, and Baylor College of Medicine's Human Genome Sequencing Center. The GenBank National Center for Biotechnology Information Trace Archive has the data of the sequenced DNA and it is available there to be seen by any person.

"I'm thrilled," said 79-year-old James Watson, who was given the sequenced DNA report during a ceremony at Baylor College of Medicine. James Watson and Francis Crick, who died in 2004, won the Nobel Prize in 1962 for their discovery of the DNA double helix structure. They had proposed that DNA has a double helix structure with Hydrogen bonds between A and T nucleotides and G and c nucleotides. A and T have a double bond whereas G and C have a triple bond.Different combinations of A, T, G and C give different DNA for every individual.

"I knew I was risking possible anxiety when I saw it, but it's much more that if I don't sleep at night it's due to thinking about Iraq rather than about my genome." said Watson while receiving the genome sequence.

Watson's genome has some genes which are the cause of cancer. Regarding this he said, he once suffered from skin cancer and his sister had breast cancer. So there is a high probability that these genes have been transferred to him and his sister from their parents. Although there is not much risk of cancer due to these genes.

Jonathan Rothberg, the founder of 454 Life Sciences, said that the cost price of sequencing someone's genome can come down to around US $1,000, which will make it affordable to larger populations. At the same time he said that there were no plans of completing more sequencing projects in the near future.

"Since Dr Watson is the co-discoverer of DNA's structure and a 1962 Nobel Laureate, it is only appropriate to work with him on this ambitious genome sequencing project. This project will pave the way for exploring life at the ultimate level by uncovering what makes each individual unique," he added.

Using these sequenced genomes in medicine can raise many ethical issues and those have to be dealt with before any further step can be taken in this direction. These issues include whether or not to reveal the personal information to any other person than the patient, as this information can be misused by that person in various ways, said Amy McGuire, who is working as an assistant professor of medicine with Baylor's Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy.

Also whether or not the patient is to be told about the exact status of the disease diagnosed after the mapping? Matters related to confidentiality of these have to be properly dealt with. What will be the legal liabilities in case of breach of code of conduct? All these questions have to be properly thought upon and reasonable solutions to these have to found before this technique is used more commonly and on a large scale.

In Watson's case also ethical issues were taken care of in advance by HGSC who consulted James Watson before undertaking this project. There were some things which he did not want to know and those were removed from the final draft which was presented to him. These included the information on whether or not he carried the gene responsible for Alzhimer's disease. Watson's grandmother suffered from this disease and this is incurable till now.

According to the researchers, the mapping, is the first step in making this process of disease detection and curing, affordable and to be used regularly in medicine. After the sequencing is over the genes of the patient can be compared to a healthy person and the abnormalities can be identified. This technique has the potential of detecting many diseases which have not detected till now. So this should be properly developed taking care of all the ethical issues, so that it emerges as a beneficial process.