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Catalyst – Genius of Junk (2003)

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Original classification rating: PG. This clip chosen to be PG

Clip description

At the height of his success in discovering the significance of what was once called 'junk DNA’, or non-coding DNA, Dr Malcolm Simons is diagnosed with a life-threatening cancer.

Curator’s notes

by Janet Bell

This clip effectively captures a moment of great irony. Dr Simons has just read his own death sentence in the tests he’s recently undergone. He is portrayed as the classic tragic hero. He conjectures that the cure for his cancer could well be locked up inside non-coding DNA, if only he might live long enough to continue the work.

This program is a Catalyst special, running for the whole television half hour. As a science story, it’s great drama – the scientist who is cut down by disease at his greatest moment of discovery. It brings out the terrible irony that a cure may not be found in time to save him because he and his business partner have not made this line of research freely available to other scientists who may be able to make the sort of breakthrough that Dr Simons is now too unwell to work towards.

Teacher’s notes

provided by The Le@rning FederationEducation Services Australia

This clip shows immunologist Dr Malcolm Simons, who at the time of filming was a patient in a cancer ward, describing his prognosis as being terminal unless better therapies or a cure for his condition are discovered. A narrator explains that such therapies and even a cure may lie in the research into DNA that Simons himself pioneered. A visually striking sequence follows that includes an explanation of genes and the role of the science of genetics. It is accompanied by background music.

Educational value points

  • DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) carries genetic data and information that determines the structure and function of every component in the body, including height, eye colour and susceptibility to disease. When the human genome (genetic information inherited from one’s parents) was mapped in 2001 it was found that genes make up about 3 per cent of the 2.9 billion letters of DNA code in the human body. The other 97 per cent comprises non-coding DNA or 'junk DNA’, which consists of seemingly random sequences that until recently were thought to serve no purpose.
  • Immunologist Dr Malcolm Simons conducted pioneering research to show that non-coding DNA sequences were not random as was previously thought, and might play a vital role in combating disease. Simons believed that junk DNA might provide markers that would indicate if genetic abnormalities were present and could work as a diagnostic tool. In related research, a 2005 study by the University of California indicated that on an evolutionary level non-coding DNA might protect the integrity of species by resisting new mutations and acting as a decoy to absorb mutations that could damage vital genes.
  • In the mid-1990s Dr Simons and his business partner, Dr Mervyn Jacobson, patented the use of non-coding DNA in living organisms. Simons and Jacobson set up the company Genetic Technologies in 1989 to develop Simons’s theory that non-coding DNA might help in the diagnosis and cure of diseases. The patent gives Genetic Technologies, for a specific period of time, the sole right to make use of or sell the 'non-coding sequence invention’, which refers to the methods devised by Dr Simons for using non-coding DNA. The company says it does not 'own’ DNA, but rather the 'methods for deducing information from the genome by looking for patterns’ in non-coding DNA.
  • Patents belonging to particular companies may prevent others from undertaking genetic research that could provide treatments for life-threatening diseases. Genetic Technologies says that other research institutions can use its 'invention’ for a nominal one-off licence fee, while it applies a higher rate to commercial enterprises such as pharmaceutical companies that could profit through the application of this 'invention’. However, the patent means that the wider scientific community does not have access to the relevant research and this could delay the development of treatments or cures for diseases.
  • The patenting of non-coding DNA raises ethical questions about whether a company should be able to 'own’ genetic information. Genetic pathologist Dr Graeme Suthers has argued that this material should be freely available for the benefit of humankind. The patents taken out by Genetic Technologies may have delayed research that could provide better treatment or even a cure for Simons’s illness. While the Catalyst program Genius of Junk estimated that this patent could earn millions of dollars for Genetic Technologies, Simons sold his shares in the company after a falling-out with Jacobson in 2000.