Cracking the Genome: Inside the Race To Unlock Human DNASimon and Schuster, 2001-01-05 - 320 psl. In 1953, James Watson and Francis Crick discovered the double helix structure of DNA. The discovery was a profound, Nobel Prize-winning moment in the history of genetics, but it did not decipher the messages on the twisted, ladderlike strands within our cells. No one knew what the human genome sequence actually was. No one had cracked the code of life. Now, at the beginning of a new millennium, that code has been cracked. Kevin Davies, founding editor of the leading journal in the field, Nature Genetics, has relentlessly followed the story as it unfolded, week by week, for ten years. Here for the first time, in rich human, scientific, and financial detail, is the dramatic story of one of the greatest scientific feats ever accomplished: the mapping of the human genome. In 1990, the U.S. government approved a 15-year, $3 billion plan to launch the Human Genome Project, whose goal was to sequence the 3 billion letters of human DNA. At the helm of the project was James Watson, who resigned after only a couple of years, following a feud with National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Bernadine Healy over gene patenting. His successor was the brilliant young medical geneticist Francis Collins, who had made his name discovering the gene for cystic fibrosis. As Davies reports, Collins is a devout Christian who has traveled to Africa to work in a missionary hospital. He believes the human genome sequence is "the language of God." Just as Collins became project director, J. Craig Venter, a maverick DNA sequencer and Vietnam veteran, was leaving the NIH to start his own private research institute. Venter had developed a simple "shotgun" strategy for sequencing DNA, and his fame skyrocketed when his new institute proved his sequencing system worked by becoming the first to sequence the entire genome of a microorganism. Only 3 percent of the human genome had been sequenced by early 1998, the public project's halfway point. That same year, Venter was approached by PE Corporation to launch a private human genome project. He stunned the world when he announced the formation of a new company to sequence the human genome in a mere three years for $300 million. A war of words broke out between public and private researchers. Undeterred, Venter built Celera Genomics with the motto "Speed matters. Discovery can't wait." and an $80 million supercomputer. While the insults intensified, Celera's stock price soared, tumbled, and soared again. Negotiations for cooperation between the public and private institutes began, only to fall apart in acrimony. Then in the spring of 2000 President Clinton stepped in, telling his science adviser to restart negotiations. History was about to be made. Davies captures the drama of this momentous achievement, drawing on his own genetics expertise and interviews with key scientists including Venter and Collins, as well as Eric Lander, an MIT computer wizard who refers to the public genome project as "the forces of good"; Kari Stefánsson, the genetics entrepreneur who is remaking Iceland's economy; and John Sulston, chief of the UK genome project, who led the charge against gene patenting. Davies has visited geneticists around the world to illustrate a vast international enterprise working on the frontier of human knowledge. Cracking the Genome is the definitive account of how the code that holds the answers to the origin of life, the evolution of humanity, and the future of medicine was broken. |
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... gene—a glamorous, high-profile collabo- ration between two genetics superstars. Collins's research record alone justified his prominent position in the program, as did his rare talent for public speaking. But there was one more reason ...
... gene—a glamorous, high-profile collabo- ration between two genetics superstars. Collins's research record alone justified his prominent position in the program, as did his rare talent for public speaking. But there was one more reason ...
5 psl.
Inside the Race To Unlock Human DNA Kevin Davies. DNA sequence data on hundreds of genes simultaneously, when ... public human genome project was on the verge of extinction. The Wellcome ... sequence of the human genome that INTRODUCTION 5.
Inside the Race To Unlock Human DNA Kevin Davies. DNA sequence data on hundreds of genes simultaneously, when ... public human genome project was on the verge of extinction. The Wellcome ... sequence of the human genome that INTRODUCTION 5.
6 psl.
Inside the Race To Unlock Human DNA Kevin Davies. duction of a definitive sequence of the human genome that would ... public sparring threatened to sully what by rights should be one of the most dignified and welcomed accomplishments ...
Inside the Race To Unlock Human DNA Kevin Davies. duction of a definitive sequence of the human genome that would ... public sparring threatened to sully what by rights should be one of the most dignified and welcomed accomplishments ...
17 psl.
... Genome Research , which would eventually be given authority to distribute its own grants . Watson urged the NIH direc- tor to nominate an active scientist who " would simultaneously reassure Congress , the general public , and the ...
... Genome Research , which would eventually be given authority to distribute its own grants . Watson urged the NIH direc- tor to nominate an active scientist who " would simultaneously reassure Congress , the general public , and the ...
31 psl.
... public spats over several issues . One was the mat- ter of Watson's private ... genome institute . But a deeper , more philosophical issue concerned the ... genome research at the NIH while instructing Watson not to go public with any ...
... public spats over several issues . One was the mat- ter of Watson's private ... genome institute . But a deeper , more philosophical issue concerned the ... genome research at the NIH while instructing Watson not to go public with any ...
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amino acid archaea bacteria biology biotech BRCA1 breast cancer Brenner called cDNA Celera cells chimpanzees chromosome 22 cloning Cold Spring Harbor collaboration colleagues Collins’s colon cancer complete Craig Venter Crick cystic fibrosis database deCODE discovery disease genes disorder DNA sequence double helix Drosophila enzyme Eric Lander ESTs evolution families Francis Collins fruit fly gene patenting gene therapy genetic code geneticist genome centers Haseltine human chromosome human DNA Human Genome Project hundreds Hunkapiller Huntington’s Ibid Iceland identified inherited June laboratory Lander letters of DNA markers million bases mitochondrial DNA molecular molecule mutations Nature Genetics Neanderthals Nobel Prize organism percent population potential predicted protein public genome public Human Genome quence race samples Sanger Centre scientific scientists sequence data shotgun shotgun sequencing Stefánsson strategy Sulston Sydney Brenner syndrome thousands TIGR tion University variations Wade Watson Wellcome Trust Y chromosome York
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