Time :

4pm, Sunday, Mar 22, 2009

Speaker: 陳豐奇 (visiting scholar at bioeng, ucsd)

Division of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, 

National Health Research Institutes

http://w3.nhri.org.tw/nhri_org/bs/biostat/e_fcc.htm

Place:

Yingja and Fattys' new house.

Title:

Between human and chimpanzee: how different are we from the “ape”?

Abstract 

In this talk, I will give an overview of recent findings in human genome evolution. Comparative genomics studies between human and chimpanzee are considered helpful in answering the ultimate question: what makes us human? The genomic sequences between the two species were regarded almost identical, with ~99% similarity. However, accumulating evidence suggests that the genomes have been changing dynamically at the sub-chromosomal and finer scales through the past  4~6 million years of human-chimpanzee divergence. Some recent studies have tried to link such genetic changes with phenotypic characteristics, only with limited success. Notwithstanding the frustratingly small advances, I envision that the comparative studies will continue to prosper, for such studies are not only evolutionarily meaningful but also biomedically  important.

Related News of the Speaker

http://www.epochtimes.com/b5/6/12/17/n1559586.htm

黑猩猩基因 可探究人類愛滋

【大紀元12月17日訊】〔自由時報記者王昶閔台北報導〕黑猩猩遺傳基因與人類相似度高達九十九％，卻不像人類一樣會罹患愛滋病、阿茲海默 症。台國衛院研究發現，和黑猩猩不同的是，人類基因中，有八十四萬個獨特的缺失或插入事件、受影響的基因有七千個，下一步將探究這些基因差異，是否與上述 疾病有關。

台國衛院這項研究發現，將刊登在最新一期的「基因體研究」期刊，希望對於人類某些重大疾病的治療，能夠提供更多研究基礎。國衛院生物統計與生物資訊研究組助研究員陳豐奇說，雖然黑猩猩的遺傳基因與人類如此相似，但兩者的外貌與對疾病表現卻截然不同。

陳豐奇表示，黑猩猩雖然會感染Ｂ、Ｃ型肝炎，卻可以與病毒和平共存，不會有感染後期的嚴重併發症；黑猩猩就算感染了ＨＩＶ病毒，也不容易發展成愛滋病；而再年老的猩猩，也不會有人類腦中因阿茲海默症引發的異常神經纖維結。

如果將人類與黑猩猩的基因序列比喻成一連串英文字母，這些缺失與插入的「事件」，就如同在特定基因上多了或少了一些字母。若能在現有研究基礎上，找出某些疾病在黑猩猩身上「失靈」的原因，將有助於新治療的發展。