DNA Code Breaker Tested Theory On Jane Austen Text

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DNA Code Breaker Tested Theory On Jane Austen Text

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=57513

A researcher at the University of Bradford has perfected a computer

programme that could unlock the secrets of the human genome and pave

the way towards new treatments and drugs sooner than had been

expected.

As reported in this week's edition of the journal Nature (pg 259,

Vol. 444, 16 November 2006) Professor Simon Shepherd has constructed

an algorithm that can unpick the sequences of As, Gs, Cs and Ts that

make up the world's genomes.

Professor Shepherd, who is Professor of Computational Mathematics at

the University of Bradford, has been working on genomics with

Professor Clive Beggs (Professor of Medical Technology) and Dr Sue

(Lecturer in Biomedical Science) in Bradford's Medical

Biophysics Research Group.

Professor Shepherd originally tested his computer programme on the

entire text of Emma by Jane Austen after removing all the spaces and

punctuation, leaving just a long impenetrable line of letters.

Despite having no knowledge of the English vocabulary or syntax, the

programme managed to identify 80 per cent of the words and separate

them back into sentences.

Professor Shepherd believes that this can be applied to the genetic

sequence, which contains around 3 billion letters and is currently

baffling scientists as to how to interpret it. Within these sequence

there is information that nobody knows how to extract - codes that

regulate, control or describe all kinds of cellular processes.

Professor Shepherd believes that his method of number crunching will

be able to make an interpretation. He said: " We are treating DNA as

we used to treat problems in intelligence. We want to break the code

at the most fundamental level. "

A human cell has to fit about two metres of DNA into a nucleus a few

micrometres in diameter, which requires packing it together with

proteins in a complex hierarchy of 'folding back and wrapping

around'. The fundamental element underlying all this packaging is

the nucleosome - 147 base pairs of DNA wrapped around a globule of

eight proteins called 'histones'.

Professor Shepherd added: " The protein folding problem is regarded

as one of the three grand challenge problems of 21st century

science. Its resolution is crucial to the development of the new

drugs and medical therapies that the Human Genome project promises

one day to deliver.

" I believe that the combination of insights from the hard, numerate

sciences such as mathematics and engineering, coupled with expert

knowledge of the biochemistry at the cellular level, will prove to

be the most fruitful approach.

" Although results will not happen overnight, we can expect to see

the promise of the Human Genome project bearing fruit within the

next 20 to 50 years. "

http://www.bradford.ac.uk