Posted on 01/18/2005 12:56:17 AM PST by nickcarraway
A team of Korean researchers have developed software capable of identifying cancerous and other illness-causing genes from a DNA chip, a government-run IT research institute said yesterday.
The Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute hailed the development of the software as a case that has maximized synergy effects between the fields of information technology and biology.
The software, the institute said, marks the highest level of IT technology applied to research of serious diseases such as cancer and diabetes.
Along with the software, ETRI researchers also developed a system that forecasts changes in gene evolution.
The development is expected to speed up stem cell research in particular, as the system can predict with great precision what kind of tissue or organ certain parts of a stem cell will transform into, researchers said.
ETRI, which carried out the research with funding from the Ministry of Information and Communication, said it was upbeat about the developments providing breakthroughs in Korea's medical research and development of new medicines, in addition to saving royalty costs.
"The latest technology developments mark a case of applying IT in biology. We expect them to have great impact on development of new medicines as well as stem cell research in the long term," said Park Seon-hee, an ETRI researcher.
Korean scientists, led by Seoul National University professor Hwang Woo-suk, are at the center of the world's stem-cell research.
In related news, the Ministry of Science and Technology announced it will develop a technology to clone a large number of cats and dogs by 2007 for research purposes.
The ministry said the project is intended to find the causes of genetic diseases in those animals.
bump
It's impossible to imagine how the world will look in a hundred years as the code of life is broken.
We're already cutting and pasting, how long before we understand it well enough to start writing in it?
So what am I supposed to do, beg my parents not to...oops, too late.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.