Living in the post-genomic era.

• Author: Falaschi, Arturo

The completion of the sequencing of the human genome and at an accelerating pace of the genome of many other organisms has undoubtedly changed the outlook of biological research, to the point that biologists define the present one as "the post-genomic era", marking the need to approach the study of living organisms with a different perspective. To understand this transition, we must recall that much of the research in biology and medicine in the past two to three decades has been characterized by the efforts to identify the gene(s) responsible for a given biological function (or disease, for much of human pathology), isolate it and determine the DNA sequence bearing the information for it. Instead, today the researcher investigating a function of the human organism or any interesting organism, whether microbe, plant or animal, for which the data on the genome sequence are already or will be available in the near future, is offered all the necessary information concerning the complete DNA sequence.

The media hype on the completion of the human genome sequencing--which, in fact, is not quite complete since a number of gaps and uncertainties are still extant, but will undoubtedly be eliminated in the near future--has led the public to believe that the task of understanding the details of the function (and dysfunctions) of the human organism is almost attained or lust around the corner. The reality is much more sobering, and in order to assess it the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB) organized in October 2001 a scientific symposium, gathering some of the most qualified biologists of the world scientific community to review "the biology of the post-genomic era".

Besides the purely scientific interest in the matter, the symposium had also a practical operational character, namely to help in orienting the scientific programme of ICCEB in the near and not-too-distant future. The Centre, which was initially promoted by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and is an autonomous international organization with a membership of 46 countries, has the mandate of providing a centre of excellence for research and training in genetic engineering and biotechnology of the developing countries. The reasons that prompted UNIDO to create ICGEB stem from the realization emerging in the late seventies that the extraordinary progress of molecular biology and genetics offered unprecedented potential tools...