National DNA Day

Since my job involves DNA research, I thought it only proper that I commemorate National DNA Day. After all, where would we be without DNA? I can safely say, my life depends on it! JW's job has depended on it for years and years, and my kids wouldn't be my kids, unless they carried my DNA. So, what is National DNA Day, and why is it on April 25?

National DNA Day is a day set aside to appreciate DNA research and educate people about its importance and its history. DNA has a double helical structure (It looks like a spiral staircase). It was on April 25, 1953 that the structure of DNA was published by James Watson and Francis Crick. A researcher named Rosalind Franklin did much work producing X-ray diffraction images of DNA. The information she generated influenced the famous hypothesis made by Watson and Crick regarding the structure of DNA. Their work resulted in the first accurate model of DNA. Actually, Watson and Crick, along with Maurice Wilkins (the boss of Rosalind Franklin), received a Nobel Prize for their work in 1962. I have always felt that Rosalind Franklin most definitely should have been included as a co-recipient of the Nobel Prize; she actually died a few months before her 38th birthday, with exposure to X-ray radiation (her work) as a possible factor leading to her death.

Then, a mere 50 years later in April of 2003, the human genome project was completed. It was a worldwide effort to sequence and map all of the human genes. This was a daunting task to say the least. We have 46 chromosomes arranged in 23 pairs, containing a total of 20,000 to 25,000 genes. But in addition, our genome contains about 80 to 90% "junk" DNA, so-called because so far no function has been found for this DNA. We have in our genome over 3 billion DNA base pairs (a base pair would be the equivalent of a step in the spiral staircase image). The data generated is about 750 megabytes and can not entirely fit on a standard CD.

To summarize, today we are celebrating the generation of a human blueprint.