The Genome War: How Craig Venter Tried to Capture the Code of Life and Save the WorldThe long-awaited story of the science, the business, the politics, the intrigue behind the scenes of the most ferocious competition in the history of modern science—the race to map the human genome. On May 10, 1998, biologist Craig Venter, director of the Institute for Genomic Research, announced that he was forming a private company that within three years would unravel the complete genetic code of human life—seven years before the projected finish of the U.S. government’s Human Genome Project. Venter hoped that by decoding the genome ahead of schedule, he would speed up the pace of biomedical research and save the lives of thousands of people. He also hoped to become very famous and very rich. Calling his company Celera (from the Latin for “speed”), he assembled a small group of scientists in an empty building in Rockville, Maryland, and set to work. At the same time, the leaders of the government program, under the direction of Francis Collins, head of the National Human Genome Research Institute at the National Institutes of Health, began to mobilize an unexpectedly unified effort to beat Venter to the prize—knowledge that had the potential to revolutionize medicine and society. The stage was set for one of the most thrilling—and important—dramas in the history of science. The Genome War is the definitive account of that drama—the race for the greatest prize biology has had to offer, told by a writer with exclusive access to Venter’s operation from start to finish. It is also the story of how one man’s ambition created a scientific Camelot where, for a moment, it seemed that the competing interests of pure science and commercial profit might be gloriously reconciled—and the national repercussions that resulted when that dream went awry. |
Contents
| 3 | |
| 11 | |
| 13 | |
The Secret of Life | 27 |
Down Bungtown Road | 39 |
Genesis | 55 |
The Code Breaker | 68 |
This Guy Can Get Sequencers to Work | 77 |
The Ides of March | 195 |
He Doesnt Get | 207 |
The Hand of | 224 |
Evil Boy | 236 |
Chess Games | 244 |
How to Assemble a Fly | 255 |
Line 678 | 272 |
Dancing in Miami | 279 |
The Quieter World | 91 |
H Flu | 104 |
PART | 115 |
A Hundred Million Customers | 117 |
The Gene Hunter | 123 |
All Hands | 136 |
Dead on Arrival | 152 |
Venter Units | 166 |
War | 182 |
Getting to No | 289 |
Things Being What They Are | 310 |
A Garden Party | 325 |
End Game | 336 |
A Beautiful Moment | 359 |
A Note on Sources | 375 |
Acknowledgments | 391 |
Other editions - View all
The Genome War: How Craig Venter Tried to Capture the Code of Life and Save ... James Shreeve No preview available - 2005 |
The Genome War: How Craig Venter Tried to Capture the Code of Life and Save ... James Shreeve No preview available - 2004 |
Common terms and phrases
academic algorithm Amgen announcement asked assembly base pairs biotech Broder called Celera cell chromosome clones Cold Spring Harbor collaboration colleagues Collins's company's Craig Venter database discovery DNA sequence draft Drosophila Eric Lander finished fragments Francis Collins fruit fly GenBank Gene Myers gene patents genetic genome centers genome program going Hamilton Smith Haseltine human code Human Genome Project Incyte interview John Sulston later letters look Mark Adams meeting million molecular molecule Myers's needed NHGRI Nicholas Wade Norton Zinder patent Patrinos Paul Gilman percent Perkin Elmer Peter Barrett Peterson pharmaceutical pieces problem protein public program race Robert Millman Rubin Sanger Centre scientific scientists sequencing machines SNPs Sulston Sutton talk thing Thompson TIGR tion Tony White took trying unitigs Waterston Watson weeks Wellcome Trust whole-genome shotgun Zinder