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Hyderabad , Sept. 12

WITH several human cancers still defying cures, scientists in the post-`human genome' era are trying to change track and look at genes, which they feel could hold clues to opening up simpler routes to developing effective diagnostics and drugs.

Leading the effort is the Sanger Institute at Cambridge University, UK, a subsidiary of the Wellcome Trust, where a `Cancer Genome Project' is probing each one of the 30,000-odd genes that comprise the human genome. A draft of the project was announced in June 2000.

The Director of the Sanger Institute, Dr Allan Bradley, has said, "Cancer is not being treated as a genetic disease though truly it seems to be genetic." Most cancer drugs available in the market are poisons and hence damage tissues. Many of the treatments also have high mortality rates.

In view of these avoidable negative implications, newer approaches are necessary to cure the deadly disease. Hence, the interest in exploring the gene.

At Sanger Institute's sequencing factories, the scientists are engaged in an ambitious project to sequence all the 30,000 genes in about 100 cancers, Dr Bradley said in his lecture on `Beyond Human Genome', organised by the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) and the British Council.

So far, the institute has been able to develop an identified target and a potential candidate drug that needs to be put through the rigour of development and trials. Though the results are some time away, the rapid sequencing of genes is yielding valuable leads, he said.

Genomic sequencing presents huge medical and commercial opportunities. But the progress in terms of products and diagnostics would come only through enormous investments, for which the public and private industry need to pump in lots of funds, Dr Bradley said.

He said bio-informatics is still not up to the challenges posed by the huge amounts of data stored in the genes that needs to be sequenced, decoded and exploited. The Sanger Institute and the European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI) have developed `Ensemble Analysis', an automatic gene prediction programme, which could help in building an integrated picture of the genome.

Infectious diseases is another area where genomics is opening up exciting possibilities. At the Sanger Institute itself, 18 pathogens have been sequences. These include the TB bacteria, malaria parasite, M. leprae, plague, etc. The genes of these pathogens are targets for the development of new drugs and vaccines that can be very useful for developing nations, he said.

He said common diseases such as asthma, obesity and blood pressures have already shown high genetic components and their hereditary nature. Scientists have also identified over 100 genes involved in diseases. This study is useful in assessing genetic risk factors and development of better drugs and diagnostics.

The post-human genome era is also witnessing the establishment of indexes of genes and proteins and huge libraries of data that can lead to exciting developments.

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