Most of us will remember what we were doing the day of a significant global event. The day two planes flew into the twin towers. The day the Berlin Wall came down. The day a tsunami hit the shores of Indonesia.
As a doctor, I remember one day doing my ward rounds in 2000 when then UK prime minister Tony Blair and then US president Bill Clinton announced that the full human genome was finally sequenced. While it was inspiring to hear that the “blueprint” of humans was now known, I still had sick patients on my list yet to be seen and discharged. For them, the relevance of the discovery could not have felt more remote.
Not every advance is momentous. Most ground-breaking changes cannot be pinpointed to a single press conference. They are instead the result of many smaller, incremental advances, as we cardiologists would be soon be reminded.
Around the time we first understood the human genome sequence, we discovered that humans have virtually the same number of coding genes (roughly 20,000) as a worm or fish.
What makes us different are the 3 billion remaining base pairs of the non-coding genome. In these, we find what are called gene regulatory elements. They are more easily visualised as “switches”, which control when and how much our genes are expressed.
The blueprint of the human genome can be thought of as a songbook. Different musical notes are sung by different cells, often in unison. And so, we have lung cells performing differently to heart or liver cells even though they all have the same blueprint. The circuitry involved is complicated and intricate.
Despite this complexity, now is a fantastic time to be working in genomic research. Technological advances reveal how different sections of the genome and its switches underpin cellular functions throughout the body. With technology, doctors can sequence our patients’ genomes at accessible costs, control their gene expression and even edit their blueprint. This allows us to target the root cause of diseases.
Indeed, such technology has already informed life-saving new therapies for cancer. When cardiologists watched Mr Blair and Mr Clinton’s 2000 announcement, it kindled hopes of new cures and therapies. Now, were are finally moving closer to such solutions for complex and multifactorial heart diseases.
The blueprint of the human genome can be thought of as a songbook
For example, mapping out the genes that cause high cholesterol has had a huge impact. We now think it may be possible to safely edit such genes in adult genomes, giving people a reduced risk or even lifelong protection against heart disease. In the meantime, suppressing gene expression related to heart disease using twice-yearly injections of gene targeting medicines will be far more effective than the daily, oral doses of statins patients currently take.
A new generation of medicines is emerging as a result of our ever-deepening understanding of the genomic map. Targeting genomic switches in order to re-programme gene expression would reverse the course of disease rather than simply slow its progression. The latter is what nearly all medicines today do.
The future of cardiology is glowing with excitement as we pursue a solution to the scourge of heart disease, which blights the lives of many – particularly those at elevated risk, such as the elderly and sufferers of metabolic diseases and diabetes. These risk factors are at an all-time global high. For cardiology, the next generation of ground-breaking medicines is firmly on its way and could not be welcomed sooner.
Professor Roger Foo is Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan Professor in Medicine at the National University of Singapore
Cryopreservation: A timeline
- Keyhole surgery under general anaesthetic
- Ovarian tissue surgically removed
- Tissue processed in a high-tech facility
- Tissue re-implanted at a time of the patient’s choosing
- Full hormone production regained within 4-6 months
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
PROFILE OF CURE.FIT
Started: July 2016
Founders: Mukesh Bansal and Ankit Nagori
Based: Bangalore, India
Sector: Health & wellness
Size: 500 employees
Investment: $250 million
Investors: Accel, Oaktree Capital (US); Chiratae Ventures, Epiq Capital, Innoven Capital, Kalaari Capital, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Piramal Group’s Anand Piramal, Pratithi Investment Trust, Ratan Tata (India); and Unilever Ventures (Unilever’s global venture capital arm)
WWE Evolution results
- Trish Stratus and Lita beat Alicia Fox and Mickie James in a tag match
- Nia Jax won a battle royal, eliminating Ember Moon last to win
- Toni Storm beat Io Shirai to win the Mae Young Classic
- Natalya, Sasha Banks and Bayley beat The Riott Squad in a six-woman tag match
- Shayna Baszler won the NXT Women’s title by defeating Kairi Sane
- Becky Lynch retained the SmackDown Women’s Championship against Charlotte Flair in a Last Woman Standing match
- Ronda Rousey retained the Raw Women’s title by beating Nikki Bella
DUNGEONS%20%26%20DRAGONS%3A%20HONOR%20AMONG%20THIEVES
%3Cp%3EDirectors%3A%20John%20Francis%20Daley%20and%20Jonathan%20Goldstein%3Cbr%3EStars%3A%20Chris%20Pine%2C%20Michelle%20Rodriguez%2C%20Rege-Jean%20Page%2C%20Justice%20Smith%2C%20Sophia%20Lillis%3Cbr%3ERating%3A%203%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
The%20specs
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MATCH DETAILS
Juventus 2 (Bonucci 36, Ronaldo 90 6)
Genoa 1 (Kouame 40)
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre V8 twin-turbocharged and three electric motors
Power: Combined output 920hp
Torque: 730Nm at 4,000-7,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed dual-clutch automatic
Fuel consumption: 11.2L/100km
On sale: Now, deliveries expected later in 2025
Price: expected to start at Dh1,432,000
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
Stan%20Lee
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MATCH INFO
Real Madrid 2 (Benzema 13', Kroos 28')
Barcelona 1 (Mingueza 60')
Red card: Casemiro (Real Madrid)
Expert input
If you had all the money in the world, what’s the one sneaker you would buy or create?
“There are a few shoes that have ‘grail’ status for me. But the one I have always wanted is the Nike x Patta x Parra Air Max 1 - Cherrywood. To get a pair in my size brand new is would cost me between Dh8,000 and Dh 10,000.” Jack Brett
“If I had all the money, I would approach Nike and ask them to do my own Air Force 1, that’s one of my dreams.” Yaseen Benchouche
“There’s nothing out there yet that I’d pay an insane amount for, but I’d love to create my own shoe with Tinker Hatfield and Jordan.” Joshua Cox
“I think I’d buy a defunct footwear brand; I’d like the challenge of reinterpreting a brand’s history and changing options.” Kris Balerite
“I’d stir up a creative collaboration with designers Martin Margiela of the mixed patchwork sneakers, and Yohji Yamamoto.” Hussain Moloobhoy
“If I had all the money in the world, I’d live somewhere where I’d never have to wear shoes again.” Raj Malhotra
