![]() ![]() This is not a story of our distant future it is already embedded in our present). Siddhartha Mukherjee Talks About ‘The Gene’ The oncologist and Pulitzer-winning science writer discusses his 2016 book about the history of genetics, and the novelist Kate Atkinson talks. The identification of these disease-linked genes augurs a new era of genetic management, enabling parents to screen fetuses, and potentially abort them if they carry deleterious mutations (any person who has tested their unborn child for Down syndrome, cystic fibrosis, or Tay-Sachs disease, or has been tested herself for, say, BRCA1 or BRCA2 has already entered this era of genetic diagnosis, management, and optimization. ![]() ![]() Two technologies transform genetics in the 1970s: gene sequencing and gene cloning-the “reading” and “writing” of genes (the phrase gene cloning encompasses the gamut of techniques used to extract genes from organisms, manipulate them in test tubes, create gene hybrids, and produce millions of copies of such hybrids in living cells.) In the 1980s, human geneticists begin to use these techniques to map and identify genes linked to diseases, such as Huntington’s disease and cystic fibrosis. ![]()
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