Understanding DNA

ESALQ’s Office of Communications interviews Bruce Weir, Statistical Genetics specialist

In 1967, Roland Vencovsky, senior faculty at ESALQ Genetics Department (LGN), obtained his Masters in Experimental Statistics at North Carolina State University. By that time, he met researcher Bruce Weir, and ever since quantitative genetics has become a subject for interaction between the Brazilian and American researchers. In 2013, Weir was a lecturer at the 59th Brazilian Congress of Genetics, held between September 16th and 19th in Águas de Lindóia (São Paulo State, Brazil), as a result of an invitation made by Professor Antonio Augusto Franco Garcia (also from LGN), who did his postdoctoral studies at the Center for Bioinformatics headed by Bruce Weir.

Currently, Bruce Weir is head of the Department of Biostatistics, University of Washington, and between January and March he will spend his sabbatical funded by Fulbright Program as a visiting professor at ESALQ. During his stay, the scientist intends to interact with faculty, researchers and undergraduate / graduate students interested in improving their knowledge in Statistical Genetics. Thereby, he will coordinate the Brazilian edition of the Summer Institute in Statistical Genetics at ESALQ between January 22nd and February 12th, 2014. In the interview transcribed below, Weir spoke about this event and studies of human genetics developed in the USA.

What do you have to say about the Summer Institute in Statistical Genetics?

Bruce Weir (BW): In the U.S., the event is in its 18th edition. In 2014, the version to be held at ESALQ is adapted to the interests of Brazilian science. It is the first time this course is offered in Brazil and, as in previous editions, it aims at introducing geneticists to cutting-edge methods of statistical analysis and also introducing statisticians to the statistical challenges posed by modern genetic data.

Why did you decide to bring this event to ESALQ?

BW: Nowadays, general Biological Sciences and specially Genetics have become quantitative, which means that it is increasingly necessary to analyze progressively larger data sets. Statistical Genetics is one of such fields, to which I dedicate myself. ESALQ also has teams prepared to deal with quantitative traits of agricultural production, for example. This area has become important because the amount of data currently available is huge. The measures are based on billions of data. Fields such as animal and plant breeding have used these techniques for many years. Apart from morphological data, DNA data has become a new world to be understood.

Will you also enhance your studies here in Brazil?

BW: Brazil is a very interesting place to study Human Genetics because its population has a very rich evolutionary history, made up of a mixing of migratory movements. Hence it represents a more challenging scenario for studies in this field when compared to other countries.

Is Human Genetics part of your scope of work?

BW: My research group studies the European populations, but recently we have focused on data collection related to Hispanic and African-American people. I personally coordinate a program that studies the genetic profile of Hispanics coming from Puerto Rico, Cuba, Mexico and Dominican Republic. South America native populations are important because they are very ancient and we are interested in comparing their data with the Hispanics information.

How can DNA data contribute to future generations?

BW: Today it is possible to relate DNA data and genetic diseases. We are also specialized in forensic genetics, which uses DNA evidence to identify crime suspects, as well as air crash and natural disaster victims.

Is this what we call Genomic Prediction?

BW: Yes, we can predict whether the person will get a disease or not from DNA samples. This is an assumption, not an absolute result, but animal breeders have been very successful in predicting the amount of milk produced, for example. In humans, the results are not as precise yet, but we have promising results.

What are the most important outcomes of your studies?

BW: Based on DNA information, we are now able to identify a person who cut his finger in a piece of glass while breaking into a house. We can predict the criminal's physical characteristics using blood samples, or even fingernails or hair collected on the crime scene. It is the sketch derived from tones of DNA mapped information. Eye and skin color can already be predicted in the studies we conducted. In the future, we will be able to create a hologram using this information.

What do you expect from the contact with the Brazilian scientific community?

BW: I hope my visit to Brazil may constitute a bridge between scientists in northern and southern hemispheres.

 

Written by: Caio Albuquerque
Translated by: Débora Andrade Pereira
Proofread by: Marisa Aparecida B. Regitano d'Arce
Acom (ESALQ’s Office of Communications)
January 17th, 2014