HMB265H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Medical Genetics, Gene Therapy, Habitat Destruction
20 May 2018
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HMB265
Lecture 1: Genetics and Genomics of Biology
Genetics: The Science of Inheritance
• What is inherited
• How is it inherited
• Where does heritable variation come from?
• How do heritable traits change over time?
Why Do We Care?
1. Medicine
➢ Many common and rare diseases are inherited
➢ Even infectiour diseases can have a genetic component (e.g. AIDS, malaria resistance
➢ Understanding the genetic basis of disease can lead to the development of new treatments and
allow for important screening
o New treatments: identifying disease genes helps in efforts to cure
o Diagnosis and prediction: Do you have a presymptomatic disease & what is the
chance that my child will have it also?
o Gene therapy: replacement of “diseased” gene with “normal” gene: still experimental
o Pharmacogenomics: how does my genetic makeup affect my response to drugs
➢ Many ethical concerns related to medical genetics in society
o Should we test for diseases with no cure
o How to interpret ‘probability’ of contracting disease?
o Privacy (employers, insurance)
o Gene therapy: what counts as ‘normal’ vs ‘disorder’
o Can a compant patent my genes (no)
2. Agriculture
➢ Crop and livestock improvement rely on understanding of genetics of important traits
➢ Genetic engineering becoming widespread practice
➢ Genetic diversity of crops and livestock affects their long-term survival
3. Conservation
➢ Habitat destruction reduces gentic diversity
➢ Genetic diversity affects a species’ ability to adapt to changing environments
➢ Low genetic diversity also increases exposure of populations to genetic diease
4. Biology
➢ Genetic analysis helps us understand how organisms work
➢ How they develop
➢ How they behave
➢ How they adapt to their environment
Genetics of Type II Diabetes
• Researchers have identified numerous genes that influence the risk of type II diabetes
• Most only confers small increase in risk (e.g. 1.3 times), explaining only a small fraction of
variation
• Genetics plays an important role in type II diabetes, but
diet and lifestyle also have major impact, and are the
major causes of rising incidence
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