Gene Master - How a private researcher won the race to decode the human genome

Wall Street Journal ^ | October 27, 2007 | RONALD BAILEY

[neverdem]

Craig Venter is not a man who is inclined to underestimate himself. But then why should he? He beat the government's science bureaucrats in the race to decode the human genome. Fueled by $3 billion in taxpayer money, the federal Human Genome Project had waddled along for years until Mr. Venter, in 1998, managed to come up with private funding for a $300 million parallel research effort, Celera Genomics. He announced that his team would sequence the genome -- mapping the three billion DNA base-pairs that make up all 26,000 or so human genes (plus tracking long stretches of currently unknown function) -- three years ahead of the government's schedule and at a tenth of the cost. And he did.

One of the five genomes that Mr. Venter's team sequenced was his own. "A Life Decoded" is a kind of second sequencing, in prose instead of proteins this time around. Mr. Venter not only traces the events of his life but also maps the future of biomedicine as he sees it.

Mr. Venter's early life was hardly that of a science prodigy. While growing up in a town just south of San Francisco, he proved to be a mediocre student. His eighth-grade report card (reproduced in "A Life Decoded") shows an average grade hovering between C- and D+. "Some parents may, perhaps, find some hope on seeing similar report cards from their children," he wryly notes.

After barely managing to graduate, he moved in the early 1960s to Southern California, bodysurfing at Newport Beach during the day and working nights at a Sears, Roebuck warehouse. Then an Army draft notice arrived; Mr. Venter enlisted in the Navy. "It never dawned on me that I might end up in Vietnam."...

[Anti-Bubba182]

That was predictable. The Government funded researcher would milk the cow as long as possible.

[familyop]

...interesting distributed computer work, as is protein folding.

[GAB-1955]

However, you can’t assume that the Government-funded researcher would produce bad science. There’s some good stuff that comes out of NIH and NIMH and NASA. Often it’s not who’s there first but whose work is more seminal.

[StarCMC]

Very interesting.

[ml/nj]

I've always thought these project to decode the human genome were largely BS but I thought Francis Collins had been credited with "finishing" first. (I know about Collins because he was the spaeker when my daughter graduated from UVa in 2001.)

ML/NJ

[traviskicks]

"...three years ahead of the government's schedule and at a tenth of the cost."



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[neverdem]

Biologists for Agency Endorse Dams Plan

Master Regulatory Gene of Epithelial Stem Cells Identified

FReepmail me if you want on or off my health and science ping list.

[SunkenCiv]

Venter was unethical in his use of his own genome, much of which was decoded using $100s of millions of private investment, and contrary to the rules. IOW, he's a liberal. Thanks neverdem.

Scientist Reveals Genome Secret: It's Him

Scientist Reveals Genome Secret: It's Him
by Nicholas Wade
April 27, 2002

When scientists at Celera Genomics announced two years ago that they had decoded the human genome, they said the genetic data came from anonymous donors and presented it as a universal human map. But the scientist who led the effort, Dr. J. Craig Venter, now says that the genome decoded was largely his own. Dr. Venter also says that he started taking fat-lowering drugs after analyzing his genes... [M]embers of Celera's scientific advisory board expressed disappointment that Dr. Venter subverted the anonymous selection process that they had approved... Though the five individuals who contributed to Celera's genome are marked by separate codes, Dr. Venter's is recognizable as the largest contribution. He said he had inherited from one parent the variant gene known as apoE4, which is associated with abnormal fat metabolism and the risk of Alzheimer's, and that he was taking fat-lowering drugs to counteract its effects... Dr. Arthur Caplan, a biomedical ethicist at the University of Pennsylvania, said, "Any genome intended to be a landmark should be kept anonymous. It should be a map of all us, not of one, and I am disappointed if it is linked to a person."

Other folks get fired for surfin' the web at work. A little later Venter was forced out as president of Celera.