MCLC: genetic code for genius

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: kirk (denton.2 at osu.edu)
Subject: genetic code for genius
***********************************************************

Source: Wall Street Journal (2/15/13):
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324162304578303992108696034.h
tml

A Genetic Code for Genius?
In China, a research project aims to find the roots of intelligence in our
DNA; searching for the supersmart
By GAUTAM NAIK 

At a former paper-printing factory in Hong Kong, a 20-year-old wunderkind
named Zhao Bowen has embarked on a challenging and potentially
controversial quest: uncovering the genetics of intelligence.

Mr. Zhao is a high-school dropout who has been described as China's Bill
Gates. He oversees the cognitive genomics lab at BGI, a private company
that is partly funded by the Chinese government.

At the Hong Kong facility, more than 100 powerful gene-sequencing machines
are deciphering about 2,200 DNA samples, reading off their 3.2 billion
chemical base pairs one letter at a time. These are no ordinary DNA
samples. Most come from some of America's brightest people—extreme
outliers in the intelligence sweepstakes.

The majority of the DNA samples come from people with IQs of 160 or
higher. By comparison, average IQ in any population is set at 100. The
average Nobel laureate registers at around 145. Only one in every 30,000
people is as smart as most of the participants in the Hong Kong
project—and finding them was a quest of its own.

"People have chosen to ignore the genetics of intelligence for a long
time," said Mr. Zhao, who hopes to publish his team's initial findings
this summer. "People believe it's a controversial topic, especially in the
West. That's not the case in China," where IQ studies are regarded more as
a scientific challenge and therefore are easier to fund.

The roots of intelligence are a mystery. Studies show that at least half
of the variation in intelligence quotient, or IQ, is inherited. But while
scientists have identified some genes that can significantly lower IQ—in
people afflicted with mental retardation, for example—truly important
genes that affect normal IQ variation have yet to be pinned down.

The Hong Kong researchers hope to crack the problem by comparing the
genomes of super-high-IQ individuals with the genomes of people drawn from
the general population. By studying the variation in the two groups, they
hope to isolate some of the hereditary factors behind IQ.

Their conclusions could lay the groundwork for a genetic test to predict a
person's inherited cognitive ability. Such a tool could be useful, but it
also might be divisive.

"If you can identify kids who are going to have trouble learning, you can
intervene" early on in their lives, through special schooling or other
programs, says Robert Plomin, a professor of behavioral genetics at King's
College, London, who is involved in the BGI project.

But critics worry that genetic data related to IQ could easily be
misconstrued—or misused. Research into the science of intelligence has
been used in the past "to target particular racial groups or individuals
and delegitimize them," said Jeremy Gruber, president of the Council for
Responsible Genetics, a watchdog group based in Cambridge, Mass. "I'd be
very concerned that the reductionist and deterministic trends that still
are very much present in the world of genetics would come to the fore in a
project like this."

Mr. Zhao is a phenomenon in his own right. In addition to his genetics
wizardry, he says his near-fluent English is self-taught. His career as a
geneticist began quite humbly—with the cucumber. In 2007, he skipped
afternoon classes at his school in Beijing and started an internship at
the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

He cleaned test tubes and did other simple jobs. In return, the graduate
students let him borrow genetics textbooks and participate in experiments,
including the sequencing of the cucumber genome. Mr. Zhao was 15 years
old; when the study of the cucumber genome was published in Nature
Genetics in 2009, he was listed as a co-author.

Tantalized by genomics, Mr. Zhao quit school and began to work full-time
at BGI, one of the biggest genomics research centers in the world. It is
based in the mainland city of Shenzen, near Hong Kong. The following year,
BGI founded a cognitive genomics unit and named Mr. Zhao as its director.

Mr. Zhao's first foray into the genetics of intelligence was a plan to
collect DNA from high-achieving kids at local high schools. It didn't work.
"Parents were afraid [of giving consent] because their children's blood
would be taken," says Mr. Zhao. Blood samples are the most efficient way
to collect DNA samples.

In the spring of 2010, a theoretical physicist called Stephen Hsu from the
University of Oregon visited BGI. Dr. Hsu was also interested in the
genetics of cognitive ability, so the pair joined with other colleagues to
launch the BGI intelligence project.
One part of the plan called for shifting to saliva-based DNA samples
obtained from mathematically gifted people, including Chinese who had
participated in mathematics or science Olympiad training camps.

Another involved the collection of DNA samples from high-IQ individuals
from the U.S. and other countries, including those with extremely high SAT
scores, and those with a doctorate in physics or math from an elite
university. In addition, anyone could enroll via BGI's website if they met
the criteria.
The Shenzen government agreed to pay for half the project, and BGI said it
would pitch in the other half, says Mr. Zhao.

Most of the samples so far have come from outside of China. The main
source is Dr. Plomin of King's College, who for his own research had
collected DNA samples from about 1,600 individuals whose IQs were off the
charts. Those samples were obtained through a U.S. project known as the
Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth, now in its fourth decade.

Dr. Plomin tracked down 1,600 adults who had enrolled as kids in the U.S.
project, now based at Vanderbilt University. Their DNA contributions make
up the bulk of the BGI samples.

Dr. Hsu embarked on his own marketing drive. When giving science talks at
various institutions, including the California Institute of Technology,
Taiwan's Academy of Science and Google
<http://online.wsj.com/public/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=GOOG>, GOOG
+0.64% 
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ineTicker> he exhorted listeners to sign up for the study.
BGI's website has so far attracted about 500 qualifying volunteers.

The scientific challenge is significant. Consider the genetics of height,
which, like intelligence, is a complex trait governed by many different
genes, each one with a tiny influence.

Attempts to find height-related genes didn't yield any reliable hits until
the number of DNA samples exceeded 10,000. By studying more and more
samples, scientists have now identified about 1,000 genetic variations
that partly explain why some people are taller than others. Those results
are replicable—and they hold true whether a person is from Iceland or
Japan.

By comparison, one of the biggest genomic investigations of IQ attempted
so far involves only about 5,000 people drawn from the general population.
Scientist say that tens of thousands of regular people would have to be
studied just to find the first useful IQ gene.

That's where BGI's genomic deep dive comes in. The team will compare the
genomes of 2,200 high-IQ individuals with the genomes of several thousand
people drawn randomly from the general population. Because most of the
supersmart participants being studied are the cognitive equivalent of
people "who are 6-foot-9-inches tall," says Dr. Hsu, it should be much
easier to identify many key IQ-related factors in their genomes. (Dr. Hsu
is now vice president for research and graduate studies at Michigan State
University.)

"The genetic basis of intelligence has been ignored for a very long time,"
says Mr. Zhao. "Our data will be ready in three months' time."
A version of this article appeared February 16, 2013, on page C3 in the
U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: A Genetic Code
for Genius?.