| It was the biggest scientific grudge
match since the space race. The Genome Wars had everything: two groups with
appealing leaders ready to fight in a scientific dead heat, pushing the limits
of technology and rhetoric as they battled to become the first to read every
last one of the 3 billion DNA "letters" in the human body. The scientific
importance of the work is unquestionable. The completed DNA sequence is expected
to give scientists unprecedented insights into the workings of the human body,
revolutionizing medicine and biology. But the race itself, between the
government's Human Genome Project and Rockville, Md., biotechnology company
Celera Genomics, was at least partly symbolic, the public/private conflict
played out in a genetic lab. Now the race is over. After years of public attacks and several failed attempts at reconciliation, the two sides are taking a step toward a period of calm. HOP head Francis Collins (and .Ari Patrinos of the Department of Energy, an important ally on the government side) and Craig Venter, the founder of Celera, agreed to hold a joint press conference in Washington this Monday to declare that the race was over (sort of), that both sides had won (kind of) and that the hostilities were resolved (for the time being). No one is exactly sure how things will be different now. Neither side will be turning off its sequencing machines any time soon--the "finish lines" each has crossed are largely arbitrary points, "first drafts" rather than the definitive version. And while the joint announcement brings the former Genome Warriors closer together than they've been in years, insiders say I that future agreements are more likely to take the form of coordination, rather than outright collaboration. The conflict blew up this February when Britain's Welcome Trust, an HGP participant, released a confidential letter to Celera outlining the HGP's complaints. Venter called the move "a lowlife thing to do," but by spring, there were the first signs of a thaw. "The attacks and nastiness are bad for science and our investors," Venter told Newsweek in March, "and fighting back is probably not helpful." At a cancer meeting earlier this month, Venter and Collins praised each other's approaches, and expressed hope that all of the scientists involved in sequencing the human genome would be able to share the credit By late last week, that hope was becoming a reality as details for Monday's joint announcement were hammered out. Scientists in both camps welcomed an end to the hostilities. "If this ends the horse race, science wins." With their difference behind them, or at least set aside, the scientists should now be able to get down to the interesting stuff, figuring how to make use of all that data. |