Å®ÉúСÊÓƵ

Young Concerned Å®ÉúСÊÓƵ: ‘Don’t get me wrong. I’ve got nothing against
molecular biologists.’

Experienced, Worldly-Wise Å®ÉúСÊÓƵ: ‘No, I’m sure you haven’t’

YCS: ‘I mean, some of my best friends are molecular biologists but,
you know, I’m not actually one myself.’

E,W-WS: ‘Yes, that’s right.’

YCS: ‘I mean, there’s so much stigma, isn’t there? With the risk of
contracting HGP and all that.’

E, W-WS: ‘Contracting HGP?’

YCS: ‘Yes, only being able to get a contract on the Human Gnome Project.’

E,W-WS. ‘Don’t you mean the Human Genome Project? That’s gEnome, with
an E’

This was a genuine conversation I recently had with a very young and
very frightened PhD student. Young Concerned Å®ÉúСÊÓƵ (not his real name)
is typical of the many inexperienced, totally ignorant and deeply impressionable
biologists and biochemists who are deeply sensitive to the prejudice and
overt stigma surrounding molecular biology. There is, of course, also the
very real fear of contracting HGP with all its risks of a boring job making
sure the automated sequencer’s bottles are filled up with the right chemicals.
Some of them even think the project is mainly concerned with the genetic
basis of restricted growth. It is young people like YCS, who have a crying
need to conform and ‘get into some sequencing’, whom we try to help at the
HUGONE (Help in Understanding Genome Nonsense) Clinic .

So what do we say to them? Here are some of the questions we are asked,
and some of our answers.

YCS: ‘But it must be a good thing to be in on. I mean the HGP was thought
up by brilliant scientists, Nobel laureates, Mrs Thatcher and so on.’

HUGONE Therapist: ‘Not quite. It was actually thought up by a few drunks
from the US Department of Energy (DOE) one evening over one too many beers.
They had an embarrassing budget underspend and thought it would be a swell
idea to spend the dosh sequencing the entire human genome. This was, apparently,
in the mistaken belief that this would help them to spot point mutations
caused by ionising radiation.

‘By the time they had sobered up enough to realise that the sequencing
error of 1 per cent made their idea a fantasy of Quixotic proportions it
was too late to pull back the monies they’d allocated. Canny molecular biologists
seized the cash and told everybody what a great, pro-science project it
was. The DOE, embarrassed about its foolish-ness stumped up some more, biotechnology
companies pushed for yet more federal spending to push their share prices
up and the rest, as they say, is hysteria. The original guys in the bar
are now supervising coal production in Alaska.’

YCS: ‘Well, perhaps. But it’s axiomatic that 4000 diseases are caused
by faulty genes. If we can pinpoint them we’ll eradicate disease.’

HT: ‘Well, we all have our axioms to grind. It’s true that most diseases
have a bit of genetic susceptibility to them, but very few diseases are
caused by faulty genes themselves. Most are caused by environmental factors.
Take, for example, the common cold. People vary enormously in their ability
to catch colds, and that is caused in part by differences in genetic susceptibility,
but we all know that the common cold is caused by a wide variety of viruses
and bacteria. Nobody thinks that genes cause colds.

‘At the other extreme, of course, understanding the genetic basis of
the common inherited blood disorders has made little difference to their
treatment. Genetic manipulation of blood stem cells is a long way off and
very unlikely to become the norm in the poor regions where these diseases
are endemic.

‘And just look at the projects intended to reduce the incidence of such
blood disorders. They screened individuals with the intent of encouraging
carriers only to have chil-dren with non-carriers. Carriers ended up ostracised
and able to marry only other carriers. Result, increased disease and red-faced
technocrats. HGP will make genetic counselling a nightmarish nonsense.

‘In any case, look at trends in disease in different countries over
the course of this century. Tuberculosis and cholera disappear with development.
But then heart disease, leukaemia and lung cancer appear. These diseases
clearly aren’t caused by rapid alterations in genes but by changes in the
environment.

‘Now that we know what causes lung cancer, and have educated people,
it is on the wane. We may never know what has caused the current epidemic
of heart disease in developed countries (diseases have an irritating habit
of disappearing of their own accord), but understanding genetic susceptibility
will be useless unless we know the specific environmental risk factors.
That’s what we should spend our scarce resources on.’

YCS: ‘But the HGP is an enormous pro-science, pro-progress project.
If you are anti-HGP (or do I mean HGP-negative?) then aren’t you anti-science
and anti-progress?’

HT: (Patronisingly) ‘A common misconception. Big projects are notoriously
anti-science and anti-progress themselves. Take, for example, the Moon Shot
programme. No spin-offs and consumed vast resources in people and money.
Set the more scientific, but unmanned, space programme back years and years.
It’s said we would never have had Teflon nor calculators if it hadn’t been
for Apollo but these had nothing to do with geezers trotting round the lunar
landscape.

‘In fact, megaprojects have their own technological inertia. The money,
the bureaucracy and manpower is so great that things can only proceed slowly
on the basis of no risk using only tried-and-tested technology. But at least
the Moon shot entertained. Great TV: ‘This is a small step for a man etc
etc.’ Moon walking is in a totally different televisual ballpark to ‘chromosome
walking’ as they call it in the ‘genebiz’.’

YCS: ‘So what should I do?’

HT ‘There’s nothing wrong with molecular biology. It can be pretty and
entertaining science. But look at it reasonably. Don’t believe propaganda.
You don’t have to justify your existence in biological science by claiming
that you’ll cure disease, save the environment or whatever. Molecular biology,
like all science, is fun and produces it’s most useful results when it’s
not applied.’

YCS, greatly relieved, takes his free T-shirt (HGP: DON’T DIE OF IGNORANCE),
writes his huge cheque to HUGONE and leaves, a faint and vacuous smile playing
around his young and acned face.

Simon Wolff lectures in toxicology at University College and Middlesex
School of Medicine, London.