Inmegen: ¿good or bad news?

By Martín Bonfil Olivera
Published in Milenio Diario, September 9th, 2009

On August 26 mexican newspaper MILENIO Diario reported that the Federal budget for 2010 will feature a 47% cut to the National Institute of Genomic Medicine (Inmegen). 120 million pesos less (from 252 in 2009 to 132 in 2010).

The natural reaction would be anger, sadness or resignation in view of another example of the lack or value our government assigns to scientific research. Inmegen would be an isolated step in the right direction, and this cut is a worrying symptom against which we should protest. This is what Gerardo Jiménez, the Institute's head, did when he declared that the decision "puts several projects of scientific research related to the study of chronic and degenerative diseases at risk".

But there's another side of the coin. Inmegen has been questioned from several fronts. The most serious one is about corruption in the construction of their building, started in 2006 and today still unfinished and abandoned. Several damages to the Federal Treasure were identified, worth 33 million pesos, as well as overexpenses for 78 million (111 million in total). Its administrative director was fined with almost 3 million and incapacitated for 10 years by the recently disappeared Public Function Ministry (the architect responsible of the building was also incapacitated, for 15 years).

And the science being done at Inmegen also has its own problems. Their relatively modest study of "the Mexican genome" was artificially blown up to turn it, according to Mexican president Felipe Calderón, into "our entrance into XXI century medicine". The still distant benefits of genomic medicine have been exaggerated wildly. Its capacity for sequencing (reading) genomes, under-used during the influenza epidemic, has now been exceeded by the National University (UNAM), which –even with its ever-present limitations and its budget problems– has just inaugurated superior installations. And its reductionist approach, patent in talk of "Mexican" or "sonoran" (from the mexican state of Sonora) genomes, is biologically and even ethically questionable.

The traditional image of Mexicans is one of lazyness: a guy with a big "sombrero" and a sarape sleeping against a cactus. I think our real problem is one of perseverance: when necessary, we are able to start taking actions to solve our problems.

But sadly, we do not follow up. We build the road but don't give it maintenance. We created a Federal Elections Institute, but we didn't protect it so it wouldn't fall apart and loose all credibility. We created the Inmegen, but we don't guarantee it an appropriate building, personnel nor budget, and we don't ensure that budget is spent honestly.

What a waste.

(translated by Adrián Robles Benavides)

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HIV: genomic confusion

By Martín Bonfil Olivera

Published in Milenio Diario, August 12, 2009

On August 6, the main science note on almost all media was a study of the genetic material of the human immunodeficiency virus, HIV.

The bad news is how this discovery was reported. Some sample headlines: "HIV genome deciphered"( BBC, picked up by newspapers such as Publimetro and radio shows like Hoy por hoy en la ciencia (Today in science), from UNAM and W Radio); "HIV genome, deciphered" ( El Clarín, Argentina). What is the problem? That it is incorrect: the full genome of HIV was decoded about 10 years ago. (A Mexican blog on internet even mentioned that "it has been confirmed that HIV uses RNA -ribonucleic acid- instead of DNA -deoxyribonucleic acid", something that has been known since the eighties.)

Some other media were more precise, though still not so clear: MILENIO Diario mentioned "the first HIV full map", "to create an image, not only of RNA nucleotides, but the forms and folds of the RNA strands". Excélsior, with the information from EFE news agency, used the following header: "AIDS virus genome structure decoded". And Spanish El mundo digital headlined "HIV genome, at bird's eye", and explained that "for the first time, the complete structure of HIV's genome was decoded and they got a clear image of its internal architecture".

Let's explain briefly:

HIV, unlike most organisms, does not have genes made of DNA , the famous double helix molecule, but of RNA, formed by only one chain, not two. The chemical links that form this chain are the "letters" in which genetic information is written, and this is what was deciphered years ago.

The discovery of researchers from North Carolina University headed by Kevin Weeks (and published on Nature magazine) is that the HIV RNA strand folds in a complex way: some parts pair up with others to form double helical stretches, for example.

When the virus penetrates a cell and its genetic information is read, these "knots" and rolls (technically known as "secondary structure") can delay the reading of the genes, and this can be fundamental to control how HIV proteins are manufactured.

In other words, a kind of "hidden code" was discovered on the virus' genome, which can be important not only to fight it, but also to better understand the control of genetic information in all types of organisms.

Unfortunately, to explain this with the necessary detail, more space is required than is normally available in news media. At the very least, we should try to be as precise as possible.

(translated by Adrián Robles Benavides)

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Mexican genome, my foot!

by Martín Bonfil Olivera

Published in Milenio Diario, May 20, 2009

On May 12, the "Mexican genome" was presented with a lot of hype.

But according to the National Institute of Genomic Medicine (Inmegen), which did the work, what was really shown was "the map of the genome of Mexicans". This distinction matters because there is no unique genome that we Mexicans all share. Each human being has its own combination of genes. And although the variation between individuals is minimal (0.5 percent), it's what makes us unique.

The media also gave the wrong impression that the "Mexican genome" information was read letter by letter.

Actually, the study titled "Analysis of genomic diversity in Mexican Mestizo populations to develop genomic medicine in Mexico" was much more modest. It examined the differences in little genetic markers between 300 individuals of seven groups: six mestizo and one from Zapotec civilization. It's a smaller version of the so-called "Hap Map", or "haplotype map": the study of genetic markers in different population groups of the world. It will be useful to relate the genetic variability with the susceptibility of the populations to certain diseases (that' where all the talk about "genetic medicine" comes from).

Inmegen concludes that it would be worthy to perform a haplotype map of the Mexican population. The study is the draft of a draft that would allow to start developing genetic medicine in Mexico.

But reading the statements of Felipe Calderón, the de facto president of Mexico ("we are entering the medicine of the third millennium", "we will have first world health", "we could prevent the development of diseases such as cancer, diabetes, hypertension or obesity, etc."), it looks like we were already in the first world.

Reality is different: Inmegen lacks support. It operates in inappropriate facilities - an office building where they cannot work with radioactivity nor microorganisms - and the construction of their definitive building is plagued with irregularities. Until recently, the Institute had a very rigid hierarchical structure in which only its director could make decisions.

And the situation is general: INDRE (the Diagnostic and Epidemiological Reference Institute), fundamental in the influenza epidemic, is "obsolete and insecure", as reported on monday by MILENIO. As published in the first page of El Universal (one of the most influential newspapers in Mexico), "Mexico is paying its abandonment of science".

With all the shortages on the health research system, to simulate that Mexico is a scientific power is dishonest.

(translated by Adrián Robles Benavides)

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