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Anyone familiar with scientific advances in the last few years should be well acquainted with the Personal Genome Project (PGP) launched by Dr. George Church in this 2005 Nature editorial. For those of you who have been living in a secluded cave somewhere for the past 6 years, the Personal Genome Project hopes to enroll 100,000 participants from the general public who are willing to have their genomes sequenced and allow the results to be published in a massive database along with extensive information about their traits and medical history. It is hoped that the information provided will help scientists test hypotheses about the relationships among genes, traits, and environment.
Perhaps less well known is what it takes to become a volunteer for this project. In order to enroll as a volunteer, potential participants must take an entrance exam that tests basic genetics literacy, informed consent expertise, and knowledge about the rights and responsibilities of human research subjects. That’s right…you must take a test and score 100% in order to qualify for participation in the study!
In order to help volunteers study for this exam, the Alan and Priscilla Oppenheimer Foundation have created a Personal Genome Project Study Guide which has information on:
genetic material
gene transmission
gene expression
gene regulation
genetics and society
project literacy
We thought that it would be fun for readers of this blog, who should be more familiar with the above topics than the average PGP volunteer, to take the practice tests associated with the study guide to see how much they actually remember from their first year courses! The tests are multiple choice so that should help prevent total embarrassment, but my guess is that most of us would not score 100% without preparing in advance. I took the gene transmission test and scored 9/10. Not enough to qualify as a volunteer!
Try your hand a the tests below and let us know how well you performed. Good Luck!
In a paper recently published in BMC Medical Genomics, scientists from Sandra L Rodriguez-Zas’ lab at the University of Illinois have identified a cohort of biomarkers that help predict survivability of patients who are afflicted with the aggressive malignant Glioblastoma multiforme brain tumor. The study also found that survivability varies between different genetic profiles and that factors such as race, gender and therapy may have a significant impact upon the survival and quality of life of individuals afflicted by glioblastoma multiforme. Read the rest of this entry »
Those of us in the medical research community think of ourselves as contributors to patient heathcare both in the areas of disease diagnosis and treatment. However, our contributions are not always recognized and it can be challenging to directly correlate the results of our experiments with a practical medical application. However, I believe that a new research challenge issued by the X PRIZE Foundation and Qualcomm Foundation may change all that and give medical researchers the recognition they deserve.
According to the announcement, the goal of the challenge will be for teams to leverage technology innovation in areas such as artificial intelligence and wireless sensing – much like the medical Tricorder of Star Trek® fame – to make medical diagnoses independent of a physician or healthcare provider. Read the rest of this entry »
I just read a great article in Science Insider discussing the recent report by the National Research Council that recommends the establishment of a massive database combining patient medical records with genomic information related to their disease.
Aside from being informative, the review by Science is actually quite helpful to the general public since the report is only available for a fee! Nonetheless, a quick google search netted me a copy of the report in brief which can be read here.
I won’t go into the details of the article, (that is for you to read), however,
after reading the article in brief, (ie the free version), I truly believe that the committee’s recommendations are correct. Due to the complexity and volume of data needing to be analyzed, an open access philosophy that allows for unfettered access to ALL data types will certainly help revolutionize our approach to personalized medicine.
