News

Private company to sequence human genome

Terri Rutter, Boston

A private US company in partnership with a well known geneticist has announced that it can sequence the human genome much more rapidly and at considerably lower cost than the federal project that is now under way.

Dr J Craig Venter--a geneticist who in 1995 made headlines with the publication of the first full genome ever to be sequenced, the bacterium Haemophilus influenzae, and who is the president of the Institute for Genomic Sciences--has teamed up with Michael Hunkapiller, the president of the Applied Biosystems division of the Perkin Elmer Corporation. They say that by working together, they can complete the sequencing of the entire human genome in three years and for considerably less money than is currently being spent.

The collaboration will supersede the federal government's human genome project, which is working toward the same goal. It is due to have completed the task by the year 2005 at a cost of $3bn (£1.9bn). Currently, the project is only half way through its projected course of 15 years, and only 3% of the genome has been sequenced. The new venture says that it can complete the human genome sequence in three years for $200m.

While the National Institute of Health oversees the federal human genome project, the actual sequencing work has been shared out among universities around the country. The Venter-Hunkapiller collaboration, however, would supersede the universities' work and instead delegate the job of sequencing mouse genomes to these institutions. Mouse genomes are necessary for understanding and interpreting information gleaned from the human genome.

Dr Venter is also working on collecting a database of human polymorphisms to accompany the sequencing information.

Dr Harold Varmus, the director of the National Institute of Health, and Dr Francis Collins, its director of genomic research, were optimistic about the announcement and expressed enthusiasm that the shorter time required to sequence the human genome would mean that the information could be applied much sooner in therapeutic ways. Dr Venter said that he intends to make the information gathered available to the National Institute of Health and other institutions around the world for research on human genetic diseases.

Yet a few disconcerting issues remain. One is whether Congress can be convinced to continue funding the institute's work on the accompanying sequencing projects, or whether it will abdicate to the private venture and cease funding the project all together. Another issue is one of ownership and rights--the ethical and legal implications of a private company owning the bulk of the information about the human genome are unclear.