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February 05, 2004
A Giant Leap Forward
FuturePundit comes through with a great article on a fantastic development in genetic research. Scientists have come up with a new technique that allows them to study thousands of genes at once to determine if they are involved in a cell function.
This technique builds on the discovery of RNAi and will have a huge effect on future research. This could have a profound effect on the future of Huntington's Disease research. Here's an excerpt:
"With this high-throughput technology, however, we can study the function of a complete set of genes. We can systematically identify all the genes involving one process.”
"The technique can be used to screen for genes involved in intercellular communication, cancer cell proliferation, and other cellular activity. Combined with drug screening the technique can accelerate the search for drugs that operate on particular cellular pathways and processes."
"...However, it would be possible to perform coordinated screens — one for compounds that interfere with a target pathway and an RNA interference screen for genes that act in that pathway. This correlation would allow you to match the compounds with the proteins they affect in a much more useful way"
"...makes possible the faster rate of discoveries of disease causes and disease treatments. Cells are so complex with so many pieces, subsystems, and types of interactions that only with the development of massively parallel techniques can we hope to fully figure out how cells work and how to cure most diseases in the next few decades."
Folks...finding a treatment for Huntington's Disease involves understanding its effects on "cellular pathways and processes". This technique will also allow researchers to better identify what drugs are more effective. This is a big time saver.
Huge gains are being made...keep the faith!
Posted by Dave at February 5, 2004 08:21 PM
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