The squid genome project
Scientists at the MBL (Marine Biological Laboratory) have recently launched the Squid Genome Project, a scientific collaboration to identify the genes of the long-finned squid—information they say will aid in the complex process of researching debilitating neurological diseases, including Multiple Sclerosis, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), Parkinson’s, Huntington’s, and Alzheimer’s disease.
The effort is being co-directed by MBL/NIH neuroscientist Joe DeGiorgis and Dutch researcher J. Peter H. Burbach, of the Rudolf Magnus Institute of Neuroscience, University Medical Center Utrecht, and supported by funding from the Laboratory of Neurobiology at the NIH and the Netherlands Brain Foundation HsN. The project unites scientists from around the world, including some of the 41 researchers who conducted squid research at the MBL this year.
Read more about this exciting project in this MBL press release. Given the obvious enthusiasm, that scientist Joe DeGiorgis has for squid in this photograph, it makes me wonder whether these scientists have something more profound (or sinister) in mind than just researching neurological diseases. I wonder just what someone could do, or create, with knowledge of the squid genome?