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Don’t panic! You too can understand DNA

By Ruth SoRelle, MPH

Daniel H. Farkas, Ph.D.

Just as his books – the most famous of which is The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Galaxy – were full of irony, so was the life of Douglas Noel Adams.

He died at age 41 of a heart attack – short of reaching 42,* a number that had special meaning in his tales of Arthur Dent, the feckless human who searches the space-time continuum. His initials were DNA – the blueprint for life.

It is also ironic that when Daniel H. Farkas, PhD, an associate professor in the department of pathology at Baylor College of Medicine and the first director of the molecular pathology laboratory at The Methodist Hospital, wrote a book for the intelligent public on DNA, he called it DNA Simplified: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to DNA. The book is now in its second edition and probably needs an update, said Farkas. DNA Simplified II: The Illustrated Hithhiker’s Guide to DNA was published by the American Association of Clinical Chemistry and is available online from major booksellers such as Amazon and Barnes & Nobles.

Why did he decide to write a book for the general public on DNA? Farkas said, “I guess it came out of the fact that so many people asked what I do for a living.”

The book was born of his frustration with trying to explain these complicated concepts to people who had never been taught the basics.

“Information is power,” he said. “An intelligent, informed population is better than the alternative.” DNA and its uses are so much a part of every day life, from medicine to the courts to genetically modified food. In the future, understanding the basics of DNA and its uses will be even more important as technology advances.

“DNA is important in so many aspects of our lives,” he said. “Out of a lack of understanding comes fear. The book was an attempt to make DNA accessible. It’s just three letters.”

The subject matter could be made dry, but Farkas sought to avoid that. For example, the section on DNA itself reads: “DNA: Deoxyribonucleic acid. See also RNA, nucleotide, also nucleic acid; in fact see every entry in this book.”

The terminology of DNA, from A-DNA to Z-DNA, gets the same no-nonsense treatment with a few asides thrown in for amusement and to keep the reader’s attention.

Farkas brings the same enthusiastic and reality-based attention to setting up his molecular pathology lab.

“People think DNA testing and they think genetics. They think eugenics. They think cystic fibrosis and inherited disease. DNA testing can also be used for infectious diseases, cancer, forensics and paternity determination. It will be an important aspect of the future food supply. It’s not a bad thing,” he said.

Farkas is president of the Association for Molecular Pathology (www.ampweb.org), his own professional organization. He acknowledges that the honor is “fun” because it represents recognition from his peers and gives him the opportunity to run the group. Recently, he was asked to moderate a panel of experts from a variety of laboratory-based groups that will explain DNA diagnostics and genetic testing to U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson.

Not only is it an opportunity to discuss the potential of the new technology in front of a powerful public official, but it also will help educate members of the medical profession who have yet to recognize the power of new technology.

"They do not know one can use DNA as a lab analyte to look for recurrent leukemia, diagnose a gonorrhea infection or the propensity to throw a blood clot while sitting in an airplane on the way to France,” he said.

The Methodist molecular pathology lab is the third he has set up. The first was at St. Barnabas Medical Center in New Jersey and the second was at William Beaumont Hospital near Detroit.

Just as he was energized by the chance to inform the public about DNA and the terminology associated with it, he is excited about the prospect of establishing this lab. The lab will be up and running in the second quarter of this year. His first job, he said, is to bring the pathology capabilities at Methodist into the 20th century for molecular testing and then quickly bring it into the 21st century with proteomics, arrays and chips.

*Note: Author Douglas Adams was a satiric genius who believed in the ultimate absurdity of life. In one part of his book The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Galaxy, the ultimate computer Deep Thought was asked for the answer to the “Great Question of Life, the Universe and Everything.” After nearly 5 million years of pondering, Deep Thought came up with the answer. It was “42.”

When the computer was told that its response did not make sense, Deep Thought countered with: The problem is you don’t know the question.

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