The Dog Genome Project

Heads Up from: Freddie who says ….

Ruff ruff, ruff ruff ruff. Ruff ruff ruff ruff ruff ruff.

He’s such a smart dog to find these type of projects!

According to the The Dog Genome Project page is…. a collaborative study involving scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Oregon, and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. It is aimed at producing a map of all the chromosomes in dogs. Such a map can be used to locate the genes causing disease and those controlling morphology and behavior.

The project is explained a little further …

Making the Map

A major goal of the dog genome project is to develop a map that will be useful to the entire scientific community for the purpose of mapping genes causing inherited disease in dogs. It is widely recognized that in many pedigreed dog lines diseases run in families. These diseases include cancer, epilepsy, retinal degeneration, bleeding disorders, skeletal malformations and a host of others. Much of the revolution in human molecular medicine has been catalyzed by the development of the human genetic map, which has allowed genes responsible for human genetic disease to be isolated. The isolation of these genes has provided highly accurate diagnosis of many diseases well before the appearance of the first symptoms. In many cases, insight into the molecular basis of the disease is leading to the development of new therapeutic compounds, and the promise of gene therapy has already been achieved in one case. None of this progress in human medicine would have been possible without a high quality genetic map. The map being produced by the dog genome project will catalyze a similar explosion in veterinary medicine and will allow more effective breeding practices to eliminate many genetic diseases from breeds currently afflicted. It is important to keep in mind that a genetic map grows in utility as more people contribute to it and benefit from it. Therefore it is the practice of the dog genome project to make all research results available to the scientific community well prior to traditional publication through electronic publication here on the World-Wide Web.

From: The Dog Genome Project Pages

It should be noted that .. The FHCRC Dog Genome Project has moved from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center to the National Human Genome Research Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland. Our work continues on mapping and characterizing disease genes in dogs. If you have any questions or would like to participate in one of our genetic studies, contact us at: dog_genome@mail.nih.gov.

The project name has changed to NHGRI Dog Genome Project, and will be found at http://research.nhgri.nih.gov/dog_genome/.

What You Can Do To Help

The Canine Genome Project is accepting canine DNA samples in the form of cheek swabs or blood samples from specific breeds of purebred, registered dogs. Check the list of breeds to see if your breed is needed for our current genetic studies. If you are interested in having your pedigreed dog participate in our research studies, please send an email inquiry to: dog_genome@mail.nih.gov. Please provide your name, your dog’s registered name, your dog’s breed, any diagnosed diseases your dog has, age of your dog, and the best way to contact you.

Well .. I see that Papillon dogs are not on the List of Needed Breeds .. I hope that means they are on the way to finding cures for all diseases for the Papillon dogs! 🙂

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...
Please follow and like us:
Twitter
Visit Us
Follow Me
RSS
LinkedIn
Share
Follow by Email

Follow hart 1-800-hart:
call HART crazy .. but you either like something or you don't - HART likes everything and everybody! Well, except Asparagus.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *