Biology seminar report (by 6B Carmen Wu Hiu Man)
Topic:
The Era of Genomics (基因組時代)
Date:
21st October, 2004
Time: 5:30 - 6:30 p.m.
Speaker: Professor Sun Sai-Ming, Samuel (辛世文教授)
I attended a talk which was about genetics in HKCU. Professor Sun briefly
introduced the history of genes, from Gregor Mendel in 1860 to Watson and Crick (the
ones who discovered DNA is double helix) in 1953. Then he explained the gene action
and function and the term "genome". (A genome refers to a complete haploid set of
chromosomes including the DNA and its gene.) He told us there are 3 x 109 base pairs
of genomes in our body! Afterwards he described the human genome project which was
firstly started by the USA. It included the genome sequencing. This gave rise to the
development of biotechnology. Examples in gene biotech are protein clotting genome,
gene-based designer drugs and gene therapy. (You will learn in the topic "Genetics".)
I heard about Professor Sun from a TV programme which talked about
biotechnology. He was famous in his research of the "super crossed-paddy rice" (超級雜
交水稻). I was looking forward to the talk because of this, unfortunately, he cut the part
of the "super rice" because there was no time. He just mentioned a bit of it at the end of
the talk. It was really a pity.
I learned more about genetics engineering and biotech after talk because Professor
Sun talked deeply about it. I think the GM Food can really improve human's life and the
gene therapy can help many people as more methods can be used to cure the people
according to a specific problem of the body. (But still have some drawbacks on GM
food, e.g. allergy was reported in some people and it may upset the ecosystem if GM
plants/animals were put into the natural environment as they were more competitive
from the natural species.)
I am quite interested in studying biotechnology in the future. Hope I can involve in
some scientific research later......(Sure! You can attend the programme concerning
biotechnology in Young Scientist Scheme.)