ACTG – Adenine, cytosine, thymine and guanine – these four bases form the code of life. Stored in them is the hereditary information for every higher life form. About three billion pairs of these four letters – the equivalent of between 20,000 and 40,000 genes – are contained in the 24 human chromosomes. The human genome was entirely decoded by 2006.
An important contribution to this enormous international project was made by the "Genome Analysis" department, which sequenced interesting areas of the chromosomes 21 and 9. "Decoded", in this sense, means only that the sequences of the bases are known. These are long rows of As, Cs, Ts and Gs. But what information is contained in these sequences? Which ones, for example, are genes responsible for disease? These are the questions we need to answer. Our researchers have focused on infectious diseases. They are searching for the genetic conditions, for instance, that lead to some people contracting tuberculosis while others appear to be immune. If we know which gene is responsible for this illness and what the proteins looks like that are coded for it, then were can selectively develop drugs to combat the disease. In addition to this work, the department's researchers are also pursuing another goal: the development of new and improved methods for genome research in the laboratory and on computers.