Where does India figure in the race to map the human genome?
SANCHITA SHARMA reports on efforts by Indian institutions to read the Book of Life Speculations about how the deciphering of the genetic code can bring about a radical transformation in the fields of medicine and biology has been in the air since James Watson and Francis Crick unravelled the double helix structure of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) in 1953, decades after DNA was first discovered in 1869. DNA fingerprinting is already commonplace, and hopefully, with the charting of the first working draft of the entire human genetic code last month it is in the public domain since the primary genome sequence cannot be patented diseases such as cancer and biological processes like ageing will be better understood. Yet, translating the successes of the Human Genome Project and Celera Genomics into medical treatment will take a few more years. Though the draft presented simultaneously by the public and private projects last month is not complete yet, the new data will show the sequence of vir
