For the end of our first semester, we were assigned a symposium to research and make a presentation on a genetically-linked disease. My parter, Abi Grassler, and I chose Cri du Chat as our genetic syndrome. Cri du Chat is a syndrome resulted form a deleted portion of the 5P chromosome, resulting in mental retardation, speech impairment, and most distinctly a cry that sounds like the cry of a cat. To learn more about Cri du Chat and see our presentation, click here or on the following link!
Cracking the Code of Life is a documentary that focuses on the Human Genome Project and the race to decode the complete set of nucleotide pairs in the entire human genome. The race is between a private and public institution, both of whom had the same goal: to find a new and efficient way to map out the letter sequence of DNA in humans. The previous method, which was to decode each phosphate band – A, C, T, and G – by hand, was scheduled to take about 15 years. The race started when a man named Craig Venter created his own private company by the name of Celera Genomics to find a quicker way to do this in 2 years instead of 15. Machines were created which could decode 1,000 genes per second; humans, on the other hand, could only map out about 100 per day the previous way. In turn, the government (public institution) stepped up its game to create new machines and laboratories so that they could find the information first and therefore make the information open to the general public instead of patented. In the end, Bill Clinton declared a tie between the two organizations after they had mapped out all 3 billion base pairs by using each other’s work.
This documentary also focuses on two genetic disorders: Tay Sach’s disease and Cystic Fibrosis. We followed around two families who each had babies affected with with each disease. I personally found the parts that focused on these families and these diseases to be the most interesting.The idea of my future children being diagnosed with either scares me a lot though, because each are extremely small mutations in the fact that only one (Tay Sach’s) or three (Cystic Fibrosis) letters are changed. I think it would be so extremely sad to be a mother and hear that your beautiful child only has a few more years to live. Both diseases are incredibly evasive, and those few years the child has left will be spent in close to a vegetable state, with total reliance on the parents. I don’t know if I would be able to handle that as a parent, to be honest – it’s a scary concept.
Overall, I enjoyed this documentary. I personally think the movie would have been better if there was a stronger focus on documenting families who are affected by genetic diseases. However, I understand that really was not the main point of Cracking the Code of Life, and enjoyed watching nonetheless. I really find movies to be an engaging way to learn, and look forward to hopefully receiving more assignments such as this one in the future!
MicroSCOPE It Out 