The day, commemorated since 2003, pays tribute to the discovery of the double helix structure of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), which became one of the most relevant scientific discoveries of the 20th century in the world.
Precisely on this date, 69 years ago, the American biologist James Watson and the British physicist Francis Crick published a model proposal for the structure of said protein in the journal Nature, and for which they received the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine in 1962. .
However, the importance of praising the molecule that contains the genetic information responsible for the development and functioning of all living beings goes beyond the fact of perpetuating a historical date.
Its relevance becomes palpable in all those studies thanks to which diagnostic methods are perfected for dozens of ailments, in the identification of risk factors and in the implementation of more effective treatments.
Researchers at the National Cancer Institute in the United States (NCI), for example, analyze the DNA of cancer cells using advanced technologies to map the landscape of the genome of that disease and discover new changes related to it.
The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), a collaboration between NCI and several organizations, has characterized thousands of these genomes, which is vital for discovering abnormalities in DNA and other proteins that are responsible for malignant tumors.
Thanks to these studies it is possible to know how variants of this disease develop with the use of different genes, after which it is possible to produce specific drugs to treat the gene in question.
The knowledge conferred by the genomics of cancer has also favored the detection, through a blood test, of whether a tumor grows months before the appearance of symptoms or of an appreciable image by X-rays or with a tomography.
A few weeks ago, a team made up of almost a hundred scientists reported in the journal Science that they had revealed the first truly complete sequence of a human genome, 19 years after achieving 92 percent sequencing.
The discovery introduced 400 million letters in the previously sequenced DNA, that is, the value of an entire chromosome, with which it will be possible to decode information present in these genes that were unknown until recently.
Speaking of the event, Evan Eichler, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at the University of Washington, stated that it is now possible to master data on the immune response for adaptation and survival to infections and viruses.
Due to the importance that these studies have for life, the International DNA Day thus becomes a day in favor of hope.
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