Event Description

"The Human Genome Project: Progress, Problems, and Prospects" is a Northwestern University public outreach program to help nonscientist students and the general public understand the importance of the Human Genome Project and to discuss the possible impact of new genetic technologies on our society.

Our speakers will discuss, in plain English, what the Human Genome Project is, how much progress has been made, how much remains to be done, how the information developed by this effort may be used, and what kinds of problems might arise.

The panel will address such questions as

• What exactly is a genome?
• Will information derived from the Human Genome Project present opportunities in the near term for diagnosis and treatment of genetic disorders?
• Will genetic profiles of large numbers of people be on record, as fingerprints are? If so, who will have access to this information?
• Can a person's genetic profile affect job security or insurability?
• What does it mean to have a patent on a human gene?
• Will the new information make it possible to clone humans?

Begun in 1989, the Human Genome Project is an effort coordinated by the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Energy to characterize the entire human genome in detail. The project's goals include

• Identifying all of the estimated 30,000 genes in human DNA and mapping each gene to a site on one of the 23 chromosomes
• Storing this information in databases
• Addressing the ethical, legal, and social issues that may arise from the project

In June 2000 the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Energy, and a private corporation, Celera, jointly announced that a "first draft" of the human genome had been completed. However, much work remains to be done before the project is finished and the information derived from it can be utilized.

This program is supported by the Klopsteg Lecture Fund, with additional support from the following Northwestern University units: the Center for Genetic Medicine; the Department of Neurobiology and Physiology; the Program in the History and Philosophy of Science; the Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Cell Biology; the Office of the Vice President for Research; the Office of the Dean, Judd A. and Marjorie Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences; the Office of the Dean, Northwestern University Medical School; and the Northwestern University Sesquicentennial Office.

For more information, please contact the Department of Neurobiology and Physiology by phone (847/491-5521) or e-mail at m-kennedy2@northwestern.edu.

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