Out of Africa

Studies have suggested that Southern African populations contain an amazing degree of genetic diversity. A recent study, published Feb. 18th in Nature, compares the genomes of male Namibian hunter-gatherers, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

The study did find a stunning array of diversity between the subjects, reporting 1.3 million novel DNA differences genome-wide. Prior to this study, about nine million variants had been discovered, thus these 5 individuals have produced an increase of more than 10% of all the existing data prior to the study.

While it is true that this genetic information could be used to tailor drugs and diagnostic tools to the southern African population, a group which has been shown to have atypical responses to drugs for HIV and other disorders, I can’t help but wonder about the reality of this. The market which can afford to pay for newly developed drugs is predominately American and European. A study like this may only prove that developing the next blockbuster drug should not be focused on trials on African populations - as the results may not translate well onto other global populations.

None of the companies or researchers who participated in the study plan to take out patents based on the data.

Alternate sources on this story:
sciencenews.org
Time