The importance of alternative splicing in the drug discovery process

The publication of the sequence of the human genome revealed that the gene count in humans is much lower than previously estimated. Although textbooks usually place the number at 100,000, it is currently estimated that the human genome contains no more than 30,000 protein-coding genes. How can the great complexity of human life be explained by this number, which is less than twice the number of genes in the primitive worm C. elegans? The answer probably lies in the recent discovery that about half of all human genes undergo alternative splicing. This paper reviews the broad implications of alternative splicing for the drug-discovery process.