BREAKING NEWS: Mendel Questions his work!!!

On the 20^th of July every year, the world celebrates the birthday of "Gregor Mendel". Gregor Mendel is the Father of Modern genetics. Of course Mendel doesn't need introductions, as everyone knows him and knows his work.

I was just thinking, what will Mendel think of what have been achieved so far in genetics?

I imagined myself interviewing Gregor Mendel on his birthday, and here is a summary of our short and imaginary interview...

When I asked Mendel of his feeling about genetics, he said that he is happy and astonished on one hand and greatly revolted on the other hand.

So, I asked him what is it that you like?

Mendel answered that he was born 189 years ago, and he never knew the impact of his work. Despite his lifelong devotion to science, he couldn't have imagined what have been achieved so far. Mendel stated that he looked at the timeline and discoveries and started reading books and articles about "Epigenetics", "Genomics", "Gene Splicing" and "Microarrays", and he couldn't believe how complicated things became. But, he is very happy about all the clarity and explanations that lacked before. Also, he couldn't believe how many sub-disciplines have "sprouted" from genetics.

But when I asked him what he sees as "Bad" Mendel said ...

When I started to read how genetics is and will be used in your daily life, some applications drove me crazy. When I read a book that welcomes the idea of manipulating your son's genes to have certain phenotype, I couldn't believe my eyes. Also, when I read another author's opinion of adding the gene of obedience from his dog to his son, because he likes how his dog greets him as he enters his house, I actually thought of creating a time machine and go back and demolish all my life's work.

Here, I interrupted him and said "But sir there are many hopes built on molecular studies to cure many diseases, don't you think we should take that into account?

Mendel: you are absolutly right, that is why I am still here and I am still reading. It is very impressive what genetics could do and the possibility of treating many diseases from cystic fibrosis to cancer. I guess, I can't be responsible for destroying these dreams.

Finally, I asked him " at the end what is your over all assessment?"

Mendel: Over all, I presume that I am happy but greatly concerned, after all -you know- I am a "Monk", but I believe that scientists will never cross that red line . And Mendel emphasized on the ethics part of science and how we shouldn't get carried away with "what we can do" without calculating the consequences. Besides, he is advising the whole community to stay the course and never forget "what we should do".

I told him that we really should discuss what we need more than what we want. And that there are many meetings, workshops and conferences devoted to genetic-sciences, one of those meetings will be held in Nairobi, Kenya 31 August- 9 September, 2011 "Next Generation Sequencing for Africa" (http://events.embo.org/glc11-06/). That conference could be a place to continue our discussions.

At the end of our interview "Dear Mendel" rest in peace and don't worry, we will continue your work and we will never forget our ethics and standards. We will never forget how hard you worked and never actually had any recognition during your life time, Thank you for your efforts.

Image source NIH via Wikimedia Commons.