"The Prince of Darkness, otherwise known as Ozzy Osbourne, has ordered scientists to sequence his genome. Heavy metal howler Ozzy Osbourne decided to have his DNA sequenced and analyzed to solve a mystery. Osbourne’s battles with controlled substances have been well documented. He said that his genetic map could help explain why he’s still around today. He gave a presentation of the results of his genetic sequencing in San Francisco Friday at TEDMED 2010.
Why Ozzy had his genome sequenced
Missouri bioscience firm Cofactor Genomics was responsible for Ozzy Osbour's genome getting sequenced. Knome Inc. then was able to analyze it. Osbourne learned he had a disease kind of like Parkinson's which caused him to want to know about his ancestry, CNN reports Jorge Conde of Knome saying. The explanation that came had been more about his character. Osbourne said in an October 24 guest column within the Sunday Times, “Given the swimming pools of booze I’ve guzzled over the years — not to mention all of the cocaine, morphine, sleeping pills, cough syrup, LSD, Rohypnol … you name it – there’s really no plausible medical reason why I should still be alive. Maybe my DNA could say why.”
Ozzy is a Neanderthal
The genome of Osbourne taught him something about his ancestry. Scientific American reports that geneticists found a “little segment” on Osbourne’s 10th chromosome that indicates one of his distant ancestors had been a Neanderthal. It would have been seriously shocking to discover someone had a Neanderthal DNA in their genome, except maybe in Osbourne. This year, Neanderthal DNA had been being researched by researchers. They found that Neanderthal DNA is in 1 to 4 percent of people that are non-Africans. Osbourne was “tickled” to learn of his caveman blood.
Genetic lottery goes to Ozzy
A gene in Osbourne's DNA makes him different from many people with the protein being developed, which is why he may have survived the years of substance abuse. Another thing that would explain why his body is doing this well would be an unusual variant near one of the alcohol deydrogenase genes which metabolizes alcohol fast. This had been all explained by a Knome Scientist. He said, “He’s a 61-year-old healthy guy, and that speaks for itself. That suggests he’s done OK in the genetic lottery.”
Find more details on this subject
CNN
news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/10/29/fridays-intriguing-people-31/?npt=NP1
Scientific American
scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=ozzy-osbourne-genome&page=2
The Sun Times
thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/
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