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April 16, 2009, 6:32 pm
New technique to sequence human genomeThe human genome is all the DNA in each cell of our body - it holds the instructions for cells to grow and specialise until the many cells become... a human! So imagine how useful it would be to be able to read the sequence of DNA to see if any of the genes (pieces of DNA holding the hereditary information) were faulty. Soon that may be possible, and cheap too! {Science Daily]
Source:
www.sciencedaily.com
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Genome sequencing with magnets is a bit difficult at home :-) but you can play our MoleClues game MAZENETICS instead!
The Human Genome Project was an international venture involving many scientists - a massive effort to sequence the 20-25,000 human genes - see the official site here
The entire human genome has approx. 3.3 x 109 base-pairs, that is 3,300,000,000... which is a lot! So if you wanted to know your DNA sequence, it would take a long time (and a lot of money!) to find it out.
That's why this new technique is so amazing - it could help to bring the cost and time down to levels that would be affordable and in time to be able to treat someone.
How is it done?
Using tiny magnets, the DNA which is attached to tiny iron oxide beads is drawn through pores and the sequence of nucleotides have their bases read - A (adenine), G (guanine), C (cytosine) or T (thymine)
With only four bases, there are still many ways to put them in a long line to make different sequences of DNA - and we are all unique in our own particular sequence! 
Action:
You don't need enormous amounts of time or money to isolate DNA from plants such as tomatoes - you can do it in your "kitchen-lab" at home! - see how here!
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