"Genetics is not offending the Gods"

Celebrating the discovery of the Double Helix

25 April 2003. Today is the fiftieth anniversary of one of the greatest scientific achievements of the 20th century: the discovery of the double helix structure of DNA by James D Watson and Francis Crick.

In its edition of 25 April 1953, the science magazine Nature published the findings of the two young scientists from USA and Britain, then working in Cambridge University's Cavendish laboratory. Unraveling the unique structure of the molecules of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), they found the key for its capacity to store and transmit biological information of enormous complexity: the genetic code. The discovery of the double helix opened the book of life and rang in a new and exciting era of biology, dedicated to its decoding.

Half a century later, we have reached new horizons. The anniversary celebrations coincide with the completion of the sequencing of the entire 3 billions of chemical "letters" of the human genetic code to an accuracy of 99.999 per cent. (99.99 per cent are shared by all humans living on earth today, the rest are variations, which can be used to identify individuals.) Two high powered research teams, a publicly funded international consortium of scientists with laboratories in Britain, USA, France, Germany, Japan and China, as well as a USA based private firm, have been working simultaneously on the human genome map since several years. In February 2001, they published two versions of a first draft, which revolutionized scientific understanding and possible medical treatment of the great diseases. Meantime, there are for example more than hundred gene changes in connection with cancer tumors identified, and researchers are very close to the introduction of a natural cancer vaccine. Armed with the information of our genes, scientists will in near future be able to improve human life radically and in various ways. But there are still more secrets left. One day, we may be able to decipher the traces of bygone worlds in our DNA, which our ancestors survived, and learn about evolution and migration of the human population.

In London, celebrations of the path breaking discovery are going on, which had been honored with the Nobel Price for Medicine in 1962, shared by Watson, Crick and Maurice Wilkins of King's College.

"I don't see genetics as offending the Gods because I don't think there are any Gods up there", said 75-year-old James Watson, now president of the Cold Spring Harbor laboratory in New York, in a message on the occasion. Strongly criticizing US-President Bush's stand on genetic research, he remarked: "I am lucky because I had a better upbringing (than Bush). I had a father who didn't instill religion in me."