First Sequenced Female DNA Breaks All Boy's Gene Decoding Club

It’s been a small club, a boy’s club so far with only four men worldwide having had their entire DNA decoded. Now, for the first time a woman has joined their ranks. Red haired, 34 year old scientist Marjolein Kreik of Leiden University has had her DNA sequence determined, the details of which would be made public on a later date.

For those unaware, the term DNA sequencing encompasses biochemical methods of determining the order of the nucleotide bases such as adenine, guanine, cytosine and thymine. The sequence of DNA constitutes the heritable genetic information that forms the basis for the developmental programs of all living organisms. Determining the DNA sequence is therefore useful in basic research, studying fundamental biological processes, as well as in applied fields such as diagnostic or forensic research.

The sequencing of Dr. Kreik took six months to complete and was done with the help of the Illumina 1G equipment at the Leiden Genome Technology Center, belonging to Leiden University Medical Center and the Center for Medical Systems Biology.

DNA sequencing is the means of establishing the order of four letters, which sometimes can be accompanied by other letters, representing portions of DNA with still unknown functions. In this particular analysis, the Illumina 1G equipment read approximately 22 billion base pairs or letters. That is almost eight times the size of the human genome.

Scientists working on human DNA sequencing have had only 4 males as their subjects till now. It particularly interests them to learn more about DNA variations on the double X chromosomes that all women possess. Therefore it was time for a female DNA sequencing as well. The project was valued at approximately $40.000.

The advent of DNA sequencing has significantly accelerated biological research and discovery. Its rapid speed has been instrumental in the large-scale sequencing of the human genome, in the Human Genome Project.

Related projects, often by scientific collaboration across continents, have generated the complete DNA sequences of many animals, plants and microbial genomes.

Harvard University researchers plan to launch an ambitious project, funded in part by Google, to decode the DNA of 100,000 people. They plan to start with 1,000 individuals in the U.S., UK, China and Sweden, at an initial cost of $50 million. On similar lines, though far less comprehensive services are also being marketed to consumers through outfits such as deCODEme, 23andme and Navigenics, which are offering to sequence part of your genetic code for $1,000 to $2,500.

In the years ahead, scientists hope DNA sequencing will teach us about the genetic origins of disease, our own genetic vulnerabilities and what treatments and forms of prevention are most likely to help us ward off illness.

It will not be surprising to see many men and women join the “we’ve been decoded” club in years that follow, what with DNA sequencing becoming fast and cheap. So have you been decoded? Something you would want to consider.