Thousands of scientists in the public, private and academic arenas are now armed with the recent ''rough-draft'' gene sequences of all 46 human chromosomes, released in June by the government's Human Genome Project. Using such information, scientists are working feverishly to unleash new ways to diagnose and possibly cure diseases. We're creating an opportunity for humanity to help us create a new world,'' said Ray White, the company's chief scientific officer. DNA Sciences, founded in May 1998, hopes to collect the DNA samples of at least 100,000 people willing to participate in four-year studies. Initial research efforts will focus on Type II diabetes, coronary artery disease, asthma, multiple sclerosis and breast cancer, and will later expand to a total of 20 common diseases.
Donors participate by completing a confidential personal and family health profile.
The company is working with patient advocacy groups and health-related Web sites to speed up recruitment and hopefully, White said, accelerate discoveries. Knowing that potential controversies could arise from privacy and ethical issues, DNA Sciences worked to ensure that consumer information would not get into the wrong hands, company officials said. All data gathered through the Internet will be encrypted, and information from the DNA samples will be anonymous. The benefits outweigh the danger, and donating blood and telling my family history is the least I could do,'' she said. DNA Sciences, which is privately held, plans to sell their knowledge of discovered gene variations later to universities, health maintenance organizations, pharmaceutical companies and possibly medical insurance companies.