The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : DNA mass spectrometry an accurate science

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jan 12, 2005

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

DNA mass spectrometry an accurate science

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, JAN. 11. DNA mass spectrometry is proving to be highly accurate in predicting certain types of genetic diseases, including different cancers, according to Charles R.Cantor, Chief Scientific Officer, Sequenom, Inc., USA.

In a brief interaction with reporters after delivering the CDFD distinguished lecture on "Application of DNA mass spectrometry in cancer and other human diseases," he said the ongoing research using deoxyribonucleac acid (DNA) mass spectrometry in detecting the risk for various diseases would help in developing bio-markers for identifying specific ailments.

Promising future

Dr Cantor said mass spectrometry could rapidly analyse thousands of DNA samples, giving valuable information of the genetic make-up in humans as well as animals or plants. Its application was demonstrated in small samples in cases of thalassemia, Down's syndrome, lung and breast cancers.

Among the potential fallouts of this understanding of genetics, he said would be the development of non-invasive diagnostic tests for cancer and other diseases in another five years. The future for molecular diagnostics is promising and quite exciting economically, he added.

Research would also help in faster development of drugs as those with risk for diseases would be pre-screened genetically. "Diagnostics and therapeutics will be much more closely related." He said the average efficacy of 90 per cent of the drugs in the USA and Europe was only 50 per cent and the United States Federal Drug Authority (USFDA) was greatly concerned with the side effects. "A lot of efficacy of the drugs is concerned with genetic variation," he observed.

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