Hubris and the human genome
Marshall, E.; Pennisi, E.
Science 280(5366): 994-995
1998
ISSN/ISBN: 0036-8075 PMID: 9616087 Document Number: 495334
On May 9, J. Craig Venter, the DNA sequencing virtuoso, announced that he has teamed up with a company to "substantially complete the sequence" of the entire human genome in three years. If successful, this for-profit venture between Venter and the Perkin-Elmer Corp. of Norwalk, Connecticut, could preempt the work of the $3 billion, government-financed Human Genome Project. The key to Venter's project will be a new generation of sequencing machines manufactured by Perkin-Elmer. Critics say that Venter's strategy, which employs a technique called whole-genome shotgun sequencing, although less expensive than the strategy being used by the Human Genome Project, will only produce a rough draft of the genome. Federal officials are taking a polite but guarded attitude toward Venter's plan, but there are fears that the project could erode an international agreement not to patent raw DNA data.