| Well, in the early '80s the decision had been made to | | | | Expression Center of the USDA's Agricultural |
| attempt to sequence the human genome. And in the | | | | Research Service, identified directly the existence of |
| later part of that decade we were thinking about how | | | | protein-encoding genes, in an advance over previous |
| to create a technology that could actually bring the | | | | work that relied on computer predictions of what |
| human genome to the individual researcher. And the | | | | genes may exist in Arabidopsis. This identification for |
| DNA chip technology, or the GeneChip� technology | | | | the first time confirmed experimentally the existence |
| is the technology that can actually perform that. It's a | | | | of nearly 6,000 genes, about one third of the genes |
| marriage of both life sciences chemistry with Silicon | | | | that computer models could only suggest existed in |
| Valley manufacturing processes that allow you to take | | | | Arabidopsis |
| the basic building blocks of DNA, the A, the C, the G | | | | "By putting the entire genome on gene chips, we found |
| and the T, and build different combinations of those | | | | that the computers were wrong about a third of the |
| building blocks in order to make different strands of | | | | time in identifying genes," said Ecker. "But we also |
| DNA. | | | | found other genes we had not seen before." |
| A Gene Chip. is a marriage of silicon based | | | | The research teams placed the entire Arabidopsis |
| technology and medically based technology together | | | | genome, consisting of about 25,000 suspected genes, |
| to design a gene chip. Life sciences are really involved | | | | on six gene chips, and then analyzed the chips for any |
| in this to create building blocks to see DNA. | | | | protein-making activity, the primary function of genes. |
| The study, which appears in the Oct. 31 issue of | | | | They isolated one-third of the plant's genes, which will |
| Science, led by Joe Ecker, Salk professor of plant | | | | be publicly available for researchers to fix errors in the |
| biology, and Athanasios Theologis, adjunct professor at | | | | current blueprint of the genome. |
| UC Berkeley and senior scientist at the Plant Gene | | | | |