DO YOU KNOW

Did you know

Did you know that the word “genome” is a combination of the words “gene” and “chromosome”?

Did you know that if the genome was a book, it would be the equivalent of 800 dictionaries?
It would take a person typing 60 words per minute, eight hours a day, around 50 years to type the human genome.You would need 3 gigabytes of storage space on a computer to hold all of this information, and yet, all of it is contained inside the microscopic nucleus of a cell so tiny that it could easily fit on the head of a pin!
(Source:NOVA’s Cracking the Code of Life PBS website; Dr. Henry Friesen, Chairman – Genome Canada – Nov. 6, 2000 – Toronto)

Did you know that our bodies are constantly producing, dividing and replicating genetic information?
In the next 60 seconds your body will produce enough new DNA that if it was linked together, would stretch 100,000 kilometres! (Source: Dr. Henry Friesen, Chairman - Genome Canada - Nov. 6, 2000 - Toronto)

Did you know that our genes are remarkably similar to those of other life forms?
For example, we share 98% of our genes with chimpanzees, 90% with mice, 21% with worms, and 7% with a simple bacterium such as E. coli - a striking demonstration of the continuum of life. (Source: Dr. Henry Friesen, Chairman – Genome Canada – Nov. 6, 2000 – Toronto)

Did you know that humans have about 30,000 genes and that 99.9 per cent of them are identical?
That means that only one chemical letter in a thousand is different in the genome of say, your next-door neighbour and Albert Einstein. (Source: Dr. Henry Friesen, Chairman – Genome Canada – Nov. 6, 2000 – Toronto)
Did you know that if two different people started reciting their individual genetic code at a rate of one letter per second, it would take almost eight and a half minutes before they reached a difference? (Source: NOVA’s Cracking the Code of Life PBS website)

Did you know that the average amount of genetic difference between any two chimpanzees is four or five times more than the average difference between any two humans, which is 0.2 percent, or one in 500 letters?(Source: NOVA’s Cracking the Code of Life PBS website)

Did you know that our genes represent only 2% of the DNA in our chromosomes?
The other 98% is non-coded DNA.Scientists still don’t know the purpose of this non-coding DNA.(Source: Your World, Biotechnology & You (published by the U.S. Biotechnology Institute), Vol. 10, issue No. 2)

Did you know that if unwound and tied together, the strands of DNA would stretch almost six feet, but would be only 50 trillionths of an inch wide? (Source: NOVA’s Cracking the Code of Life PBS website)

Did you know that if all three billion letters in the human genome were stacked one millimeter apart, they would reach a height 7,000 times the height of the Empire State Building? (Source: NOVA’s Cracking the Code of Life PBS website)

Did you know that unless you are an identical twin, your genome is different from that of every other person on earth, in fact it is different from that of every other person who has ever lived? (What is a Genome, The Institute for Genomic Research, 2001)

Did you know that the concepts of “genes” only dates back to the 19th century and an Austrian monk named Gregor Mendel?
Mendel used his garden for now famous series of breeding experiments with pea plants. He orchestrated various matings, placing pollen from one pea plant on the female flower parts of another to determine how different traits are inherited. (What is a Genome?, The Institute for Genomic Research, 2001)

Did you know that April 2003 marked the 50th anniversary of Dr. James Watson's and Dr. Francis Crick's discovery of the double helix?
In March of 1953, after many years of attempting to understand and elucidate the DNA structure they proposed the complementary double-helical configuration. Subsequently, Dr. Watson, Dr. Crick and Dr. Maurice Wilkins received the Nobel Prize in 1962 for "their discoveries of the molecular structure of nucleic acids and its significance for information transfer in living material". (The Nobel Prize, www.nobel.se)

Did you knowthat Canada has played a major role in developing treatments for diabetes?
In 1921 Dr. Banting, along with fellow researchers, discovered insulin the most widely used treatment for diabetes. In May 2000 a team of researchers from the University of Alberta announced they had successfully transplanted human pancreatic cells into people living with severe diabetes, called islet cell transplantation. This type of treatment for people with diabetes can lead to independence of insulin injections and no longer having to watch what they eat. Go Canada! (Canadian Diabetes Association, www.diabetes.ca)

Did you know that a team led by Dr. Lap-Chee Tsui from the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto discovered the defective gene and molecular defect responsible for cystic fibrosis?
It is estimated that one in every 2,500 children born in Canada has cystic fibrosis. (Hospital for Sick Children, History of the Research Institute – Discoveries and Achievements, www.sickkids.on.ca & Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, www.cysticfibrosis.ca)

Did you know that in 1995, Dr. Peter St George-Hyslop member of the Canadian Genetic Diseases Network and Director of the Center for Research in Neurodegenerative Diseases at the University of Toronto, led an international team of scientists to the discovery of the gene for early onset Alzheimer's disease and found a second gene, which is responsible for the disease. A member of the team, Dr. Johanna Rommens, of Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children, collaborated closely with Dr. St George-Hyslop and was instrumental in the discovery. (Canadian Genetic Diseases Network, www.cgdn.generes.ca)

Did you know that in 1998 an international research team led by Dr. Steve Scherer of The Hospital for Sick Children (HSC) and the University of Toronto, identified a gene responsible for one of the most severe forms of epilepsy: Progressive Myoclonus Epilepsy, Lafora type. Approximately 300,000 Canadians have epilepsy. (Canadian Genetic Diseases Network, www.cgdn.generes.ca & Epilepsy Canada, www.epilepsy.ca)

Did you know that Canadian scientists discovered a gene (AR) that protects women against breast cancer?
In 2001, a team of Quebec researchers, led by Dr. François Rousseau of the Human and Molecular Genetic Research Department (HMGRD), Hôpital Saint-François d'Assise Research Centre, Centre hospitalier universitaire de Québec (CHUQ), made the major breakthrough identifying certain variants of this gene which provide women with greater protection against breast cancer. (Canadian Genetic Diseases Network, www.cgdn.generes.ca)

Did you know that humans have one and a half more genes than a round worm and two times more than a fruit fly? (Source: Your World, Biotechnology & You, published by the U.S. Biotechnology Institute, vol.10, issues no 2)