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Mrianl K. Dewanjee*
In spite of enormous complexity of genetic circuits and
dynamic signaling pathways of multiple proteins in the
trillions of cells in the human body, this fragile
functional machine does not get enough respect for what
it does and how meticulously, continuously and quietly
it works hard to salvage us from a few self-inflicted
wounds of smoking, alcohol abuse and a few other
unavoidable issues of environmental exposure to polluted
air and water and inadequate habitats and lack of
nutrition, hygiene and knowledge of selfcare. The bold
approach of using Systems Biology for this human machine
may give us a powerful handle to know and deal with the
weaker links at an early stage before the deadly
diseases may strike and make it dysfunctional, painful,
and irreversibly unrepairable in spite of exorbitant
enormous healthcare cost of trillions of dollars. The
microarrays of genes, messenger ribonucleic acids and
proteins along with the computational tools give us a
snapshot of this fragile network of gears, switches and
feed-forward and feedbackward loops active in the early
development, growth, maintenance, loss of control and
degeneration in the late phase of life. As the cost of
sequencing and related technologies is going down, the
studies of comparative genomics and small gene-variants
from race, religion, gender and color, are showing us
how close we are to each other and other species of
lives in this planet and how we should learn and live a
quality life of creativity and tolerance and pass on the
baton to the next generation with pride and dignity. I
took a small step to cover some of these novel tools and
technologies that may make us aware of our own biology
and its medical
implications and place us on a responsible driver's seat
to practice the personalized medicine at every corner of
this global village.
* Office of Cell and Gene Therapy, Tumor Vaccine and
Biotechnology Branch, Centre for
Biologics: Evalution & Research (CBER), FDA, DHHS, USA
Address for correspondence : mrde20841@verizon.net |
