The ability to manufacture
proteins, which at present are very difficult or even impossible to produce, in large quantities and in their
native form, rapidly and inexpensively, will have an enormous impact in all sectors of biology (biotechnology, nutrition, pharmacy,
human and animal health care, and, in the near future, nanotechnology).
But
human leukocyte antigens — a group of genes that encode
proteins essential to the
human immune system — in the samples showed that a few individuals had a type, or allele, found among only
Native Americans.