After months of negotiations that seemed to have reached an impasse, the two bodies competing for deciphering the genetic code of the human genome reached a cooperation agreement.
by Tamara Traubman
After months of negotiations that seemed to have reached an impasse, the two bodies competing for deciphering the genetic code of the human genome reached a cooperation agreement. According to the agreement, the two parties - the people of the public genome project and the American company Celera - will announce the completion of the first draft of the genome on Monday. The companies are still discussing the possibility that they will jointly carry out the process of "dissecting the genome", in which the scientists will determine the presumed roles of the genes and publish their findings together in a scientific journal.
A source in Salara confirmed in a conversation with "Haaretz" that both sides are interested in the joint announcement, but said: "According to the way things have gone so far, it is possible that at the last minute there will be another explosion and the joint announcement will be canceled."
Since Dr. Craig Venter founded Celera in '98, he has conducted a loud and well-publicized competition against the public genome project, which is mainly funded by the "Wellcome Foundation" - a British philanthropic foundation, and by the National Institutes of Health in the US. Scientists from universities and public research centers participate in the project.
Both parties have an interest in neutralizing the competition between them and taking a break from mutual slanders and criticism, and both of them can already record with satisfaction that they have achieved the main goals they aspired to. The scientists of the public project succeeded in deciphering an almost complete sequence of the genome, which is deposited in a free-to-use database on the Internet. Celera proved that its controversial method for decoding the genome does work. Celera, which for the time being keeps its own version of the human genome, processes the DNA sequences in a way that allows rapid identification of the genes, and allows the use of its databases for a fee. The New Yorker magazine last week quoted scientists who claim that Venter wants his name to be etched in the pages of history and is therefore cooperating with the public project to improve his chances of winning the Nobel Prize.
Deciphering the human genome means determining the exact order of all the DNA units in the genome. In the different combinations of the DNA units is written the genetic software, which directs the development of the human body from conception to death. The genome sequence is expected to form a basis for new biological insights and help identify the roles of genes, their relationship to diseases, and the development of new types of drugs.
According to Prof. Eric Lander from MIT who participates in the public project, "for the first time a person will have his complete list of parts." Lander predicts that when the complete copy of the human genome is obtained, in about two years, "scientists will not be able to understand how it was possible to work without it."
The previous attempt to unify the people of Celera and the public project failed in February after the team headed by Dr. Francis Collins, the director of the National Institute of Human Heredity and responsible for the public project in the US, did not agree to deviate from the policy of publishing the decryption data daily. Venter said at the time that Celera was unwilling to have other commercial companies use its information and sell it to its competitors.
{Appeared in Haaretz newspaper, 23/6/2000}
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