Bandwidth limitations, DNA binary coding

[VACCINIA at UNCVX1.OIT.UNC.EDU]

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Matthew J Ghio writes:
>Um, minor correction: There are four base pair combinations, and each can be
>represented by two bits.

        There are four base pair combinations, but HUGO (Human Genome 
Organization) has elected to use 15 letter symbols in it's representation
of the genome coding sequence (X is any base, for instance). 15 symbols, 
1 byte.

>Frankly, if I had the kind of technology to easily sequence my entire genome,
>I doubt I'd be content to just look at it. I'd probably be saying, "Hmm.. I
>don't like that gene, it might give me heart disease, I'll just use a 
>modified retrovirus to substitute a better one..." :)

Lee Hood is working on the technology (PCR, for which Kary Mullins just won a 
Nobel Prize will help) for sequencing large amounts of DNA code, granted it's
15 years away at least, but just wait. Also, Have you been reading French 
Anderson in the New York Times? As one of the people who helped design the 
"modified retrovirus" of which you speak (Retroviral Expression Vector, N2), 
I can tell you that they work great in cells that live in a dish and lousy
in a whole organisms, don't trust your heart to them. We can, however, 
engineer you in other ways.

Scott G. Morham              ! The First, 
Vaccinia at uncvx1.oit.unc.edu  !           Second
PGP Public Key by Request    !                  and Third Levels
                             !        of Information Storage and Retrieval
                             ! DNA,                       
                             !     Biological Neural Nets,
                             !                            Cyberspace

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