Clinton wrote this …
Francis Collins gave a great interview in the early 1990s when he described the Human Genome Project to Charlie Gibson on Good Morning America. If each piece of DNA were a letter, Collins said, there would be millions, and the human genome would fill enough books to reach the height of the Washington Monument. Completing the genome will lead to new discoveries, new cures, and his team will do it on time and under budget.
OK, so he took a geneticist’s license with the hard data. But the point he made to millions of Americans was that studying genes is important and people should support it. And, for the most part, the American public has. He took a topic totally foreign to most people, and a little scary to some (even today), and told us why we should embrace it. Some might say he inflated expectations; others might say he necessarily raised awareness.
In 1977 Collins graduated from UNC’s School of Medicine and spent the next four years here as a resident in internal medicine. The University bestowed upon him, as they say, an honorary D. Sci in 1994. He went to a few other schools, too, along the way, before leading the National Human Genome Research Institute and the Human Genome Project.
Much has been written about Collins’ personal views on religion and science, and his early emphasis on ethics regarding the human genome. UNC’s Norton Hadler wrote this guest post on healthbeatblog. Less well known is the video above (with a nod to my UM friends), which says much about how well grounded the eminent scientist is.
Good luck with the nomination, Dr. Collins! We’ll look forward to writing again when you are confirmed.
*This post was updated July 13, 2009, to include the link to Dr. Hadler’s blog post.
