Word: celera
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...rumors of success began leaking out last week, shares of stock in Celera Genomics, of Rockville, Md., moved sharply higher. And when the news was announced on Thursday, presidential science adviser Neil Lane hailed it as "a very significant achievement." That was an understatement. Under the leadership of its brash, brilliant president, Craig Venter, Celera had beaten a big-budget, government-funded program in the race to sequence the human genome--to spell out the molecular "letters" that make up the genetic code embedded...
Venter, by contrast, took a more radical approach, smashing the DNA into millions of pieces, then feeding each into new high-speed robotic sequencers. By March 27, Celera had all of them read, though they will not be reassembled for three to six weeks. And lots more work remains to be done after that. Figuring out where those letters fall in our 100,000 or so genes, and precisely what each of these genes does, could take an additional 50 years...
...Both Celera and the Human Genome Project will go after new genomes--among them that of the mouse. (Tellingly, the government researchers are expected to adopt Venter's technique for this task.) Reason: not only are mice useful to test potential treatments, but also--because they share many of our genes--they offer an alternative route to understanding how genes work and how they can cause disease...
Pity the beleaguered U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Even before last week's announcement by Celera, applications for patents on human genes were pouring in by the thousands. Biotech firms are seeking rights to genes that might control everything from the neurotransmitters in your brain to susceptibility to chronic diseases. The frenzy is rekindling fears that a few corporations will end up controlling a priceless resource...
Already, skirmishes have broken out between university-based researchers, many allied with the Human Genome Project, and small, aggressive firms like Celera, Incyte and Human Genome Sciences. These companies are churning out patent claims almost as fast as they sequence our DNA. In 1999 Celera filed provisionally on no fewer than 6,500 genes and their fragments...