There are two words you might not have expected to see together, but they show the future importance of the research that is currently going into epigenomics, the study of the impact of methylation and other real world biomolecular interactions with the classic DNA of genetics. The Economist writers see that epigenomics may be the answer to why a Stem cell becomes a muscle cell or a lung cell. (Teaser follows)
IT WAS, James Watson claimed, something even a monkey could do. Sequencing the human genome, that is. In truth, Dr Watson, co-discoverer of the double-helical structure of DNA back in the 1950s, had a point. Though a technical tour-de-force, the Human Genome Project was actually the sum of millions of small, repetitive actions by cleverly programmed robots. When it was complete, so the story went, humanity’s genes—the DNA code for all human proteins—would be laid bare and all would be light.
It didn’t quite work out like that. Knowing the protein-coding genes has been useful. It has provided a lexicon of proteins, including many previously unknown ones. What is needed, though, is a proper dictionary—an explanation of what the proteins mean as well as what they are. (rest at Economist.com)