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- <text id=92TT2269>
- <title>
- Oct. 12, 1992: Minimaps For Human Cells
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1992
- Oct. 12, 1992 Perot:HE'S BACK!
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- THE WEEK, Page 32
- HEALTH & SCIENCE
- Minimaps For Human Cells
- </hdr><body>
- <p>Scientists provide the first guides to two chromosomes
- </p>
- <p> Finding a single gene among the estimated 100,000 genes
- scattered along the 23 pairs of chromosomes in human cells is
- every bit as daunting as finding the proverbial needle in a
- haystack. But now the quest has been made simpler, at least for
- two of those chromosomes. As reported in the research journal
- Nature, investigators in Paris have published the first map to
- describe in the correct order all the most important subsections
- of the 21st chromosome -- the one that harbors genes associated
- with Down syndrome, Alzheimer's disease and other neurological
- disorders. Simultaneously, researchers in Boston published a
- similar map, in Science, for the Y chromosome, which is vital
- to male development.
- </p>
- <p> These achievements will help researchers decipher the
- genetic blueprint of human beings. They will not, however, by
- themselves lead to useful therapies anytime in the near future.
- Because of the complicated interplay between heredity and
- environment, knowing where a gene is located and what it looks
- like is only a first step. Years of research are still required
- to determine how and why a particular gene causes a disease and
- what treatments will be needed to cure it.
- </p>
-
- </body></article>
- </text>
-
-