Mapping Humanity

Northwestern University biology professor and research director Joshua Z. Rappoport provides a detailed look at how the explosion in genetic information as a result of cutting-edge technologies is changing our lives and our world.

Dr. Joshua Z. Rappoport received a bachelor's degree in Biology from Brown University and then went on to earn a Ph.D. from the Program in Mechanisms of Disease and Therapeutics at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine Graduate School of Biological Sciences of New York University. Following defense of his thesis Dr. Rappoport went on to perform postdoctoral work at The Rockefeller University in New York City in the Laboratory of Cellular Biophysics. Subsequently he was recruited as a tenured faculty member in the School of Biosciences at the University of Birmingham in England. In 2014 Dr. Rappoport has returned to the United States where he is currently the Director of the Center for Advanced Microscopy and Nikon Imaging Center at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, and a faculty member in the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology. Dr. Rappoport's scientific perspective aims to develop and apply cutting edge microscopy to address fundamental questions in cell biology. Dr. Rappoport lives in Chicago with his wife Ema, a neuroscientist, and their dog Kris.

Contents
Introduction Part I: The Human Genome 101 Chapter 1: The Basics of DNA, Chromosomes, and Genes Chapter 2: Gene Mutations and Polymorphisms Part II: DNA Sequencing Methods Chapter 3: Sequencing DNA Chapter 4: Next-Generation Sequencing Chapter 5: Big Data! Part III: Applications for Genomic Information Chapter 6: Ancestry Chapter 7: Neanderthal DNA Chapter 8: Genetic Screening Chapter 9: Genomic Justice Chapter 10: Classical Methods to Search for Disease-Causing Mutations Chapter 11: Genome-Wide Association Studies Chapter 12: Twenty-First Century Eugenics? Chapter 13: DNA and Prenatal Genetic Testing Chapter 14: Pharmacogenomics Chapter 15: Personalized Medicine Chapter 16: Gene Therapy Part IV: Genetic Engineering Chapter 17: CRISPR-Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats Chapter 18: CRISPR Babies? Chapter 19: GMOs-Genetically Modified Organisms Chapter 20: The Future of Food? Chapter 21: Pets-Ancestry, Health, and Cloning Chapter 22: Conservation and Eradication Part V: Beyond the Genome Chapter 23: The Basics of Epigenetics Chapter 24: Epigenetics in Action Chapter 25: Mitochondrial DNA Chapter 26: The Future
References Index Acknowledgments About the Author