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There is little question that the technological advances in somatic
cell and molecular genetics hold tremendous promise for the maintenance
of genetic health and the management of genetic disease. The ability
to produce single gene mutations in somatic cells should lead
to the identification of human genes that are as yet unrecognized
and should allow more accurate evaluation of the mutagenic effects
of environmental agents. Recombinant DNA techniques, 
particularly linking restriction-fragment-length polymorphisms
to mutant gene loci, should permit a much more extensive human
gene map, making possible both prenatal and postnatal detection
of many serious single-gene diseases currently not diagnosable.
The ability to isolate and sequence oncogenes should illuminate
their methods of action in malignant processes and, 
together with such immunological techniques as the production
of monoclonal
antibodies, promises to vastly improve the control of
cancer.
Gene probes
have become available for the rapid diagnosis of infectious illnesses,
such as hepatitis B, influenza, and herpes simplex, and one can
predict further growth in the use of recombinant DNA methods in
microbiological laboratories. Recombinant DNA techniques are also
used for the production of vaccines and for the synthesis of a
variety of human therapeutic agents.
As already
mentioned, the greatest challenge in human biology today is the
understanding of development and differentiation, aberrations
of which produce congenital malformations. Many of the studies
mentioned, for example, gene transfer, isolation of growth factors,
and study of submicroscopic chromosome changes, will undoubtedly
clarify the nature of gene regulation, which is the basis of the
process of differentiation. By illuminating the roles of the genes
and the proteins whose synthesis they effect in the differentiation
process, molecular genetics promises to help build new understanding
of cellular action. This may well revolutionize the diagnosis,
treatment, and prevention of many diseases.
Catherine
Baker
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