Digital Creativity, Life Sciences, and My Life

The human genome, with its 3 billion chemical bases that together spell out the recipe for life, is still largely unfamiliar territory. While most scientists have focused their attention on the stretches of DNA responsible for building proteins, which make up only a minute fraction of the human genome, Haussler studies the vast DNA regions that do not code for proteins, often called "junk" DNA. His research strongly suggests that this "junk" has biological relevance, including the regulation of genes that build proteins. Errors in this type of DNA also have been linked to genetic diseases. An expert in using computers to understand the enormous amount of data in the genome—a field called bioinformatics—Haussler wants to learn how noncoding regions control protein-coding genes. Additionally, his studies comparing the genomes of animal species have revealed new insights into the evolutionary forces at work over millions of years.