Prize for Junk?

(See full article at http://www.junkdna.com/new_citations.html)

Rosaleen Gibbons, a Ph.D. student in the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Graduate Program received the Mary and Randolph Wedding Award for 2005
(May 27, 2005)

RIVERSIDE, Calif.

Gibbons received the prize, which carries a $2,000 cash ...She has carried out her research under the direction of Professor Achilles Dugaiczyk, a distinguished scientist researching the role of the Alu DNA in primate evolution. Alu DNA are short, interspersed elements, often referred to as “junk DNA” because they don’t code for any particular proteins...

“My paper found a 250-fold increase in the differences between human and chimpanzee DNA than had been previously thought,” Gibbons said. “Although 98 percent of DNA is identified with differences between humans and chimps, we looked at that remaining 2 percent.”
That 2 percent, and the differences, are likely involved with developmental processes in humans and chimpanzees, Gibbons said.

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