Note No. 5686

                                                            18 October 2001

Note to Correspondents

HEADQUARTERS PANEL DISCUSSION ON HUMAN GENOME, 19 OCTOBER

The Human Genome Project is a prime example of how scientific collaboration on an international scale can produce results to benefit the world.  A 15-year effort involving scientists from many nations, the Human Genome Project has produced for the world the working draft of the human genome, the genetic blueprint that shapes human traits, from eye colour and height to health, disease, and behaviour.  This information is available free to anyone around the world, opening breathtaking horizons in scientific understanding and medical progress.  For the first time, mankind has a real chance of fighting intractable diseases that have plagued humanity for centuries.

We stand at a unique moment in medical history in that the coming generations may never die of cancer, and that nations will for the first time have access to scientific information needed to tackle infections.  The promise is real, but the work has only just begun.  And, of course, the medical progress must be coupled with true access to the technology and resources for all nations.

The key to unleashing a medical revolution in the twenty-first century is understanding the actual mechanisms of disease -– the molecular parts list for biological processes, the circuit diagram that connects pathways, and the failure modes that lead to the diseases that cause morbidity and mortality around the world.  But to do that requires many nations to work together again on building new tools in the post-genome world.

These are some of the issues to be discussed at a panel on the “Human Genome”, organized by the Division for the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Support and Coordination of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, in collaboration with the InterAcademy Council.  The event will be held in the ECOSOC Chamber at United Nations Headquarters in New York on Friday, 19 October, from

10 a.m.-1 p.m.

The panellists will be:

Francisco Seixas da Costa (Portugal), Second Committee of the General Assembly (Chair),

Dr. Michael Doyle, Senior Adviser to the Secretary-General (Moderator),

r. Bruce Alberts, President of the United States National Academy of Sciences; Co-Chairman of the InterAcademy Council,

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                                                            18 October 2001

Dr. Eric S. Lander, Director of the Whitehead Institute Centre for Genome Research; Professor of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology,

Dr. Nirmal Kumar Ganguly, Director General of the Indian Council of Medical Research,

Dr. Arturo Falachi, Director of the International Centre for Genetic engineering and Biotechnology,

Dr. Ryuichi Ida, Chairman of the UNESCO International Bioethics Committee; Professor of Law, Kyoto University.

For further information, please contact Ms. Aliye Celik, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, tel. (212) 963-7454, e-mail yogasundram@un.org.

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