Dr. Tabak: Arbor Day is a tree planting holiday celebrated nationwide in our country in 1872
and April 25th is also DNA day when Watson, Crick, Wilson and Franklin and colleagues
published their findings on the structure of DNA in 1953. So today we can combine those celebrations
by planting a clone of the original tree of Hippocrates and by unveiling for the first time the gene sequence for the tree.
We are in essence through science returning the tree of Hippocrates to our campus
and also renewing, reinvigorating, and preserving the historic living monument for prosperity.
in 1962 so the National Library of Medicine and the tree grew up together.
throughout the known world at the time people of all religions, backgrounds and ethnicities
this was the NIH of the 5th century.
of a plane tree and this tree lives in this great institution today.
It took American ingenuity and dedication to clone this in a way as I understand it and have this dedication again today.
organisms, the goal is to have a physical specimen from that organism available in a museum for
study and along with that a short DNA sequence from that organism and this is very important for conservation efforts and for basic research.
Dr. Amy Driscoll from the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History downtown took a tiny DNA sample
from the original clone that we had from 50 years ago and had that sequenced so now we know where
the Tree of Hippocrates is standing in the overall tree of life.
And I think he would’ve been very excited about what DNA comparison
and other how modern methods are being used to treat disease.