Some 1.2 million new cases will be discovered. There is absolutely no question that this is going to be a defining moment in both disease and health in general and in particular cancer. Cancer is the most complex genetic disorder that we face. Understanding the enemy, understanding the genetic underpinnings of a cancer cell, is the first step in developing rational therapeutic strategies. It was announced this week was simply the location of genes on the various human chromosomes, not their function or how they interact with each other.
Much work lies ahead.
Researchers 15 or 20 years ago could not have conceived where genomics would be today. Given this progress, he said, it is only a matter of time before the rest of the puzzle gets figured out. DNA codes genetic information for the transmission of inherited traits. The chemical DNA was first discovered in 1869, but its role in genetic inheritance was not demonstrated until 1943. In 1953, James Watson and Francis Crick determined that the structure of DNA is a double-helix polymer, a spiral consisting of two DNA strands wound around each other.