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Director of
the National Human Genome Research Institute
http://www.genome.gov/page.cfm?pageID=10000779
"Its
pretty hard to say no to something like leading the Human Genome
Project," says Francis Collins. When Collins, a physician and
genetics researcher, was asked to take over what he calls "the
most historic thing that science has ever done in biology,"
he was a little nervous. Ten years later, he is still, happily,
director of the National Human Genome Research Institute.
"The genome is a wonderful book of medicine," Collins
says. By decoding the human genome, and the genomes of other organisms,
well gain insight into how genes work, and which processes
nature has preserved over time. That will be key to creating new
treatments for genetic diseases. "Evolution is a relentless
tinkerer," he says. "By looking at tinkering over the
course of hundreds of billions of years, were going to learn
a lot about function."
While Collins's beliefs about the world are grounded in scientific
knowledge, he is also a religious man. In some quarters, talking
about evolution and God in the same sentence is contradictory, but
not for Collins. "I dont see any conflict at all between
someone whos a rigorous, show-me-the-data scientist who can
see that evolution is strongly supported by every avenue of scientific
evidence," he explains, "but who also believes in a god
who has a personal interest in me."
Collins is no stranger to the religious and ethical questions that
arise around genome research. "We begin to bump into the interface
between scientific possibilities and moral decision making,"
he points out. As people sort through the questions presented by
genetics, they will come to different conclusions based on their
own values. "As a society, we have to come to grips with that."
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"Knowledge about the
genome I dont think has moral value; its neither
good nor evil. But what we decide to do with it can have moral
value."
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