So now we have it: the results of years of hard work by hundreds of scientists around the world were finally published in bumper issues of the journals Nature and Science last week. The entire human genome sequence, or at least 90 per cent of it, was unveiled with much fanfare in the scientific press (and a more muted response from a somewhat genome-weary media). Much has been made of the race between those involved in the public and privately funded genome projects, although an apparent truce was reached last June when the completion of the rough draft was first announced. But now the dust has settled, was it just a case of healthy scientific rivalry, or was something more important at stake?
The very fact that there are now two official 'versions' of our genetic code appears strange. Last week's 'my genome's better than your genome' comments from both teams seemed at odds with the importance of the occasion. But behind this apparently childish behaviour lie fundamental differences in methodology and philosophy. The publicly-funded Human Genome Project (HGP) scientists began sequencing the genome in 1990, aiming for a rough draft by 2003. Their approach was slow but methodical and the emphasis from the beginning was on making all the data immediately available to the scientific community. The fun started when Craig Venter's firm, Celera Genomics, entered the arena in 1998. The company said it would complete the entire sequence in three years, using a faster 'shotgun' method. But, crucially, Celera intended from the start to make its genome data available only to paying subscribers. As Wellcome Trust director Mike Dexter remarked last week, a 'bizarre pay-and-view system, almost like digital TV buying up the World Cup' did not seem right for such medically important information.
So the 'race' was driven by the HGP's determination to keep the human genome in the public domain. Scientists will continue to debate the effectiveness of the two methods, and it is likely that without Celera, we would probably still be awaiting the HGP's results. It has been rumoured that, upon arrival of Celera Genomics in 1998, public funding for genome research was very nearly withdrawn. If this had happened, there is little doubt that we would all have been losers. In the words of UK genome researcher John Sulston, 'the human genome is not for sale' - well, at least one version of it isn't.
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