Page 6 - Genetic Engineering in Health Care - Hi-Tech Health Care
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Collins led the HGP. He believes the human
genome is a powerful tool. He says this:
It’s a history book—a narrative of the
journey of our species through time.
It’s a shop manual, with an incredibly
detailed blueprint for building every
human cell. And it’s a . . . textbook of
medicine, with insights that will [help]
treat, prevent, and cure disease. 3
GENOME SIZE
The human genome has 3 billion base pairs.
Researchers discovered that the number of
base pairs in an organism’s genome does not
necessarily indicate how complex it is. One
type of fish has more than forty times as many
base pairs as humans.
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