Dedicated to the acceptance, medical treatment, & legal protection of individuals in the process of correcting the misalignment of their anatomical sex, & supporting their transition into society.
Washington, DC, USA. A fundamental mechanism inhibits gene expression during translation or hinders the transcription of specific genes. Called RNA interference (RNAi), it targets RNA that is significant ...
New Haven, CT, USA. The mouse is commonly used as a model organism in biomedical research. For example, a great deal of work has been done to figure out what a particular gene does in an organism. Scientists c...
Cambridge, MA, USA. The genome contains a lot of data that has to be collected, cleaned, normalized, processed, and analyzed in a manner. This has to be done in a manner that enhances understanding and ca...
San Antonio, TX, USA. Repair mechanisms exist throughout the human body, but what happens when DNA is broken? The genome itself is the source of our body and any unrepaired or poorly repaired breaks can ha...
Leiden, The Netherlands. Geneticists have for the first time determined the DNA sequence of a woman. Geneticists of Leiden University Medical Centre (LUMC) determined the DNA sequence of Dr. Marjolein Kriek, a clinical geneticist at LUMC. New insights into human genetic diversity are expected from the research. Following an in-depth analysis, the research team will publish the particulars of Dr. Kriek's sequence, consisent with protections in place for privacy-sensitive findings.
In 2001, scientists published the DNA sequences of Jim Watson, discoverer of the DNAs double helix structure, followed by gene hunter Craig Venter (2007). Recently the completion of the sequences of two Yoruba-Africans was announced.
Van Ommen says that " while women dont have a Y-chromosome, they have two X-chromosomes. As the X-chromosome is present as a single copy in half the population, the males, it has undergone a harsher selection in human evolution. This has made it less variable. We considered that sequencing only males, for completeness, slows insight into X-chromosome varialibity. So it was time, after sequencing four males, to balance the genders a bit", said Van Ommen. " after Watson we also felt that it was okay to do Kriek".
The DNA sequencing was done with the Illumina 1G equipment at the Leiden Genome Technology Center (LGTC), the genomics facility of LUMC and CMSB (installation: January 2007). In total, approx. 22 billion base pairs (the letters of the DNA language) were read. That is almost eight times the size of the human genome.
Dr. Johan den Dunnen, project leader at the Leiden Genome Technology Center (LGTC), says "This high coverage is needed to prevent mistakes, connect the separate reads and reduces the chance of occasional uncovered gaps".
The actual sequencing took about six months, partly because it was run as a side operation that filled the empty positions on the machine while running other projects. Johan den Dunnenfigures estimates that a dedicated decoding effort would take just ten weeks. Further in-depth bioinformatics analysis is estimated to take another six months.
This research was announced by the researchers at Bessensap (26 May) a yearly meeting of scientists and the press in The Netherlands. Dr. Marjolein Kriek is also the first European whose DNA sequence has been determined.
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If anyone could properly consider the ramifications of knowing his or her sequence, it is a clinical geneticist, says professor Gert-Jan B van Ommen, leader of the 
Dr. Johan den Dunnen, project leader at the 
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