Both Alec Jeffreys and Kay Davies found their inspiration for their careers and research starting during their childhood. Alec Jeffreys became interested in science at a young age when his father gave him a chemistry set at the age of 8, and then at 12 a dissection kit. I think that his father played an important role in the development of the science career which would eventually lead to the discovery of the genetic fingerprinting. For Kay Davies her main motivation for her work came from her passion to solve problems. Davies is working to find a cure to help young boys who are affected or may develop the gene for muscular dystrophy. She mentioned that as a young girl, she would not stop working on a problem until she found a solution.
Alec Jeffreys discovered the genetic fingerprinting while looking at the DNA of a family group that was affected by neurofibromatosis which affects the central nervous system with a tumor (Jeffreys, et al., 1986). This was accomplished by obtaining a blood sample from each of the parents and their eleven children. In the blood sample a probe was used to look at a minisatellites of the DNA sequence and compare the sequence to both the maternal and paternal DNA strands. The research showed that there was not a strong correlation between the maternal DNA and the child for the transmission of the neurofibromatosis. This was also seen in the paternal DNA sequence. If the transmission of the DNA sequence behaved as they expected there would be a higher rate of the gene expression in the children affecting 10 of the 11 rather than just 5. In the research they were not able to link the occurrence of the neurofibromatosis to a specific pair of alleles in the minisatellites of the DNA sequence that they were able to isolate (Jeffreys, et al., 1986).
Kay Davies has done research onto what is causing the presence and potential therapies for Duchenne muscular dystrophy which affects young boys and can cause death in the early twenties. The disease has been found to be caused by missing DNA coding for the dystrophy gene that is found in the proteins that make up the dystrophin gene which is expressed in the skeletal and cardiac muscle tissues (Fairclough, et al., 2013). One potential treatment that can alleviate some of the symptoms is viral gene therapy that would seek to replace the missing portions of the dystrophin gene, but one drawback it that it may not be effective for long because the immune response would kick in and destroy the replacement mRNA coding. Another potential treatment involves
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One of the most important things that I have learned from listening to the stories of Alec Jeffreys and Kay Davies is the importance of influence of hobbies or passions that start in the childhood. Both Jeffreys and Davies had an influential person growing up, for Jeffreys it was his father who gave him a passion for science, and for Davies it was her chemistry teacher in school and the drive to solve problems. Jeffreys was able to develop his chemistry and biology skills overtime and it helped to lead to the accidental discovery as he said of the genetic fingerprinting. Davies took her passion for wanting to solve problems to look for a solution to the genetic variation that leads to Duchenne muscular dystrophy because she does not stop until she finds a solution to the problem at hand.
The second important thing that I have learned from their stories is that discoveries can happen by accident but can lead to a new world of discovery and possibilities. With the discovery of the genetic fingerprinting by Jeffreys, there has been an increase in the ability to identify the culprit in criminal cases and reunite families who have been separated. Kay Davies has done research to attempt to find a cure or way to slow the onset of the muscular dystrophy among young boys because her passion is to help solve problems. I think that influence of these stories in my own life is how I also found my passion from my childhood where I enjoyed cooking for my family and friends especially when my mom was pregnant with my younger brother when I was in eighth grade and it became increasingly harder for her to make dinners.
I do believe that a career in science and a belief in God are compatible with each other. Science is something that can help us try to understand what has been created by God, but there are even limits to the extent of science. God is not something that we can see for fully understand but I believe that he does exist. Growing up I was given the comparison of how God is like air. One cannot see air, but we know it is there because we breathe it and science has allowed us to understand the composition of air and the importance in the bodily functions. We cannot see God, but with my faith in the Catholic church I know that he does exist. Science can help explain how each person is unique and different from everyone else with the discovery of DNA and gene sequences. God created everyone in his image and likeness and he only created one of everyone that has been on earth.
There are miracles that have been performed by God that I am not sure science would be able to explain the occurrence such as when Lazarus was brought back from the dead or when Jesus was able to give sight to a blind man. These are based on a believe and trust in God that he will provide and make things better. Recently a family friend of mine gave birth to triplets, one of which passed at 20 weeks gestation. One of the other girls was born with a heart defect which could have been prepared with surgery, but she passed while in the operating room. This family was very grateful for the advancements of science and health care that could have potentially saved their daughters life. During this entire time they had many people praying for them and their faith in God grew stronger, but their other children who are 10 years and younger are questioning how God could let their sister die when hundreds of people were praying for her.
References
- Fairclough, R.J. Wood, M.J., & Davies, K.E. (2013). Therapy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
- Renewed optimism from genetic approaches. Nature Reviews.Genetics, 14(6), 373-378.
- Jeffreys, AJ., Wilson. V, Theins. SL., Weatherall, & Ponder. B. AJ. (1986). DNA “fingerprints” and
- segregation analysis of multiple markers in human pedigrees. Am J Hum Genet, 39, p.
