Sunday

Human Genome Project Could Produce Custom-Fit Drugs to Fight Obesity

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

BRIAN NELSON, CNN ANCHOR: Well, you've heard of custom-made houses and custom-made clothing. Well, our country's president even has custom-made cowboy boots. Well now, the Human Genome Project is offering hope of custom-made prescription drugs to fight obesity.

CNN's Linda Ciampa has that story now from Boston.

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LINDA CIAMPA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At Millennium Pharmaceuticals in Cambridge, Massachusetts, robots scan thousands of samples of human DNA. It's one of first steps needed to develop obesity drugs specific to a person's genetic makeup.

LOU TARTAGLIA, MILLENNIUM PHARMACEUTICALS: When a patient sees a doctor 10 or 15 years from now, they'll actually do analysis of several of his genes to try to predict which of the several obesity drugs that will be available at that time will be most effective for that person.

CIAMPA: The sequencing of the human genome has led scientists to believe that there are at least several genes responsible for obesity.

DR. JULES HIRSCH, THE ROCKEFELLER UNIVERSITY: Many genes acting together can produce the obese state or be a major factor in the production of it, and it's understanding these little pieces now that becomes the important issue. In other words, putting together the whole machinery of how in the body we store fat.

CIAMPA: Scientists at Smith Kline Beecham are also using genetic research to develop obesity drugs.

CHRISTINE DEBOUCK, SMITH KLINE BEECHAM: Because of the multitude of approaches that is especially facilitated by the sequencing of the whole human genome, you can now pursue more than one approach and therefore you increase the likelihood of success.

CIAMPA: One target the company hopes will bring success, genes that make melanin concentration hormone and its receptor. Both are important in appetite control. And while it'll be years before the research leads to weight-loss drugs specific to genetic code, the market for those products could be huge. Experts say as much as two- thirds of obesity is linked to genetics. Linda Ciampa, CNN, Boston, Massachusetts.

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