
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, September 22, 1994                   TAG: 9409240031
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: CHICAGO                                LENGTH: Short

COMPUTER CHIP TO SPEED GENETIC STUDY

Researchers have developed a computer ``superchip'' they say will rapidly speed up deciphering of the human genetic code and eventually could help doctors treat congenital diseases before they develop.

Scientists at the Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago came up with the technology to produce the chip, unveiled Wednesday.

Argonne, whose work was paid for by the Energy Department, is one of 350 labs involved in the $3 billion Human Genome Project, a global effort to locate and describe the function of each of the 100,000 genes found in a human cell.

With the new technology, that process could be completed several years ahead of the 2005 target date for only $300 million, one-tenth of the projected cost, said Radoje Drmanac, a researcher at Hyseq Inc.

The Sunnyvale, Calif., biotechnology company has the patent to make the computer chip.

Genes are the basic unit of heredity. Each contains a specific sequence of DNA that determines a human's individual characteristics.

Hyseq expects to have ``sequenced,'' or identified, the specific order of the DNA within each of 15,000 genes by 1997. In 20 years, only 5,000 genes have been sequenced worldwide, Hyseq said.

Argonne's agreement with Hyseq ``marks a major milestone for commercial applications of the Human Genome Project that will have far-reaching impact on human and veterinary medicine, as well as agriculture,'' said Harvey Drucker, Argonne's associate laboratory director.

Gene sequencing enables scientists to study a gene's function and develop treatments for diseases linked to flawed genes, such as some birth defects and cancer.

by CNB