Genetic Mapping of Mouse Brain Complete

Vicissitude writes "A 3-D reference atlas of the genes that are active in the mouse brain is now complete. The atlas was declared finished on Tuesday, although scientists have been using it regularly for more than a year. The project was started in 2002 with $100 million from Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen." From the article: "'Since mice and humans share more than 90 percent of genes, the Allen Brain Atlas has enormous potential for understanding human neurological diseases and disorders affecting more than 50 million Americans each year,' the Allen Institute for Brain Science said. These include Alzheimer's disease, which affects 4.5 million Americans, autism, which may occur in one in every 175 births, epilepsy, which affects 2.7 million Americans, schizophrenia and Parkinson's disease."

Re:only americans suffer from brain diseases

[O'Laochdha]

But the other people don't get them American grant money!

Wow, someone didn't do his homework

[suv4x4]

Since mice and humans share more than 90 percent of genes, the Allen Brain Atlas has enormous potential for understanding human neurological diseases and disorders affecting more than 50 million Americans each year

That's an instant classic. Genes don't exactly work like this you know?

90% same genes isn't like 90% same species. We share over 70% with insects and over 50% with plants.
Yet, I wanna see someone claim that by dissecting oranges he can help us fight heart diseases.

Let's face it: he's a scientist, he wanted to do it, he had to convince the sponsors. That's fine..

Re:only americans suffer from brain diseases

[x2A]

Yeah first thing I though too... this is one of the problems with americans that's responsible for the rest of the world's disdain with them... somebody before on slashdot said if only they used the word "people" in place of "americans", the rest of the world wouldn't grind their teeth hearing it.

In this case, they're talking statistics, in may not make sense to try and say how many people in the world suffer from various conditions, but it could still be worded so much better, eg:

"...effecting more than 50 million people in America alone..."

doesn't sound like a bunch of americans thinking they're a higher species than anybody else on the planet.

Let's Do the Math

[eldavojohn]

A coworker of mine tried to astonish me with the same fact. He said, "We have over 90% of the same genes as mice!"

It's not too astonishing to me. Considering from the point of DNA, you are no where close to the end product. I'm not a biologist but to my knowledge, DNA can be one of four acids. Those, in turn are read in varying lengths to make one of twenty different amino acids. Those amino acids can be read in varying lengths to be one of hundreds (if not thousands) different proteins which are the building blocks of life.

So if you want to shock me and tell me that between a mouse and I, nine in every ten genes is the same, I'm not going to be too shocked. If one in every ten is different, I could see the above transformation resulting in something no where near the same thing.

But the basic idea is very very well founded, any gene to protein research is good research. Since we know very little about that process and find it quite difficult to predict. The answer to Alzheimer's is believed to be rooted in this process and, by working backwards, we may be able to isolate the genes that cause it. That is, of course, assuming it's due to a twisted protein which may or may not be caused by a common virus or just age.

Re:only americans suffer from brain diseases

[doshell]

So if e.g. European researchers found a cure for AIDS and didn't share that knowledge with the USA because they had done it under a European grant, would you be happy to still be infected until you found the cure on your own?

I'm going to be modded down by this, but it really takes a bigot to react the way you did. Your attitude is exactly the kind of thing the original poster was condemning (or maybe you're just a troll trying to get some entertainment).

Re:Junk DNA

[Rob T Firefly]

Every time I hear about so-called "junk DNA" that doesn't seem to do anything important, it reminds me of the ancient Egyptians when they would mummify a deceased nobleman. They hollowed out the corpse and delicately preserved what they thought of as the departed's most precious organs - heart, stomach, etc. - in sealed jars next to the mummy. When they got to the brain, it didn't appear to be doing anything important that they could see, so they just threw it away.

Re:only americans suffer from brain diseases

[O'Laochdha]

Okay, first off, that was a joke.

Seriously, though, it is somewhat important to emphasize the disease's effect on the US to get US grants. If we found a cure for AIDS, there's no doubt in my mind that we'd share it. However, if AIDS (or one of the diseases in question, or any other) were rare in the US, but more widespread overseas, it would be fairly difficult to get grants, and most scientists would spend their time on other, more lucrative things. Selfish, maybe, but I don't think there's a country in the world that doesn't put some degree of priority on domestic issues. And for all we talk about scientists only being interested in grants, they can't do their job without them.

A better allegory would be: if no one in Japan (where the disease is rare) cared to look into a cure for AIDS, would we be happy to remain infected until a more afflicted country found the cure on its own?

Re:only americans suffer from brain diseases

[Spikeles]

If we found a cure for AIDS, there's no doubt in my mind that we'd share it.

Ahhahahahaha. You made me laugh.. *wipes tears* You are joking right? You are saying that in this day and age of patents/trademarks and corporate secrets they would share the biggest cash cow of the millenium! I think not.. they will milk it for every drop it's worth, you will have to pay the discoverers royalties whenever you produce it, if they even let you produce it, assuming they don't set up their own production plant. Imagine it.. The cure! You could charge whatever price you want, sell it on ebay! it'd be worth trillions, if you ever sell it, and if someone figures out the chemical breakdown and produces it you could sue their ass off for even more money.

Re:Junk DNA

[NinjaFarmer]

"Junk DNA" sounds like some of the code I've seen. Nobody knows what it is, or what it does, but nothing works right without it.