Molecular Genetic Medicine

Molecular Genetic Medicine, Volume I, provides an overview of the progress in several of the most important areas of modern molecular genetics and medicine. The aim is to present a technical and historical picture of the concept that it is through a thorough understanding of genetics of all kinds of human diseases, even infectious diseases, that effective treatments will finally come. The book opens with a discussion of the origins and development of the Human Genome Project. This is followed by separate chapters on the development of immune-deficient mice as models for human hematopoietic disease; the application of genetic techniques for testing identity and relatedness of persons; and advances in recombinant DNA technology and their applications in drug discovery. The final chapter discusses the impact of molecular biology and molecular evolution on debates about the origin of humans, and about the origins both of the characteristics that they share with other animals and of those that make humans unique.

Contributors

Foreword

Preface

1 The Genesis of the Human Genome Project

I. Introduction

II. Technical and Scientific Background

III. Origins of Genome Research Programs

IV. Conclusions

References

2 Immune-Deficient Mice as Models for Human Hematopoietic Disease

I. Introduction

II. Hematopoiesis

III. Genetic Manipulation of Hematopoietic Stem Cells

IV. Engraftment of Human Hematopoietic Cells in Immune-Deficient Mice

V. Applications

VI. Summary

References

3 An Application of DNA Sequencing to a Human Rights Problem

I. Introduction: The Historical Context

II. The Current State of the Art of Human Identification Using Genetic Techniques

III. Sequencing of Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) as a Genetic System for Testing Relationships

IV. Diversity of the Control Region of Human mtDNA

V. Isolation of mtDNA from Various Human Tissues

VI. Testing Relationships in Argentina

References

4 Molecular Genetics and Drug Discovery

I. Introduction

II. Therapeutics Produced by Recombinant DNA Technology

III. Site-Directed Mutagenesis

IV. Genetically Engineered Drug Discovery Tools

V. Future Prospects

References

5 The Role of Molecular Biology in Human Evolutionary Studies: Current Status and Future Prospects

I. Introduction

II. The Unique Features of Primate Evolution

III. The Primate Family Trees

IV. Two Extreme Genetic Models for Human Origins and Evolution

V. Human History and the Genetics of Regional Transition

VI. Mitochondria and Human Evolution

VII. Will It Be Possible to Find a Y-Chromosome Adam?

VIII. The Extent of Human Diversity

IX. Conclusions

References

Index