Word: dna
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...elegans' genome is by far the most sophisticated ever sequenced. But if Venter's newly formed Celera (derived from the word celerity, which means swiftness) can pull it off, his proposal to shotgun the entire 3 billion-letter human genome in three years will make the roundworm's DNA look downright puny...
...fitted perfectly. But as he points out, traditional sequencing leaves holes as well. Like the government's gaps, his can be filled in later--and fast. "Let's say there are 50,000 holes averaging 83 letters each," he says. "At the rate we plan to clone and sequence DNA, we could close those...
...this party, thrown last September, was its guest list: 1,800 of the world's leading genomics experts drawn to Miami by a conference sponsored by Craig Venter, the enfant terrible of the gene hunters. Not everyone in the galaxy of genetics stars was there, however. Conspicuously absent was DNA co-discoverer James Watson, a former head of the federal Human Genome Project, who like other scientists in the field has had a long, troubled relationship with the party's host...
Then he had an epiphany: he realized that he didn't need to identify those parts of a cell's genome that code for proteins as long as the cell itself can identify them. Venter switched his attention from the DNA blueprint to the RNA templates the cell makes from those blueprints. His task vastly simplified, he began turning out gene sequences at unprecedented rates...
...look more closely at the baby's genetic prospects, doctors must probe the long stretches of DNA along the chromosomes constituting its genes. Thanks to the spectacular success of molecular biologists in identifying specific disease genes, burgeoning U.S. genetic centers now offer DNA tests for 30 or 40 of the more commonly inherited disorders, including cystic fibrosis, susceptibility to some types of breast cancer, fragile X syndrome (after Down, the most common cause of mental retardation), Huntington's disease, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, and various types of degeneration of the brainstem, spinal cord and peripheral nerves. If you include testable variants...