Progress In Mapping Genetic Code
A private company striving to map the human genetic code reported Thursday that it has completed a major step in the project, decoding the pieces of DNA that make us what we are.
Celera Genomics of suburban Rockville, Md., said it has finished the first phase of understanding one person's genetic code and will now begin to assemble the genetic fragments into their proper order.
Shares of PE Corp., the parent of Celera, shot up 23 percent Thursday morning, rising $26.43 to $139.43 on the New York Stock Exchange.
The human genome is a biological map laying out the exact sequence of the estimated 3.5 billion pairs of chemicals that make up the DNA in each human cell. Those chemicals are arranged in specific ways to create the estimated 80,000 to 100,000 human genes, which in turn carry the instructions for all the body's processes.
Think of it as a huge jigsaw puzzle. Celera uses what it calls a "shotgun technique" to identify snippets of DNA, quickly accumulating lots of genetic puzzle pieces that scientists then must fit together.
Fitting those pieces together is the crucial step and thus "the final, highly accurate sequencing of the human genome by any group is probably still a couple of years away," Dr. Francis Collins, who heads the nonprofit Human Genome Project that also is racing to discover the full human genetic code, said.
However, "I'm happy to hear that Celera has completed this part of their business plan," Collins said. " We look forward to hearing how the assembly process goes and ultimately seeing the sequence made available" to the public.
Understanding the massive series of genes that provide the code for life has been a major project for both private and public organizations for several years, because it could serve as the foundation for developing new medical cures and preventions.
Celera is a private company that is competing with government researchers to decode the human genome. But to do so, it uses portions of the genome already sequenced by the nonprofit Human Genome Project, which posts on the Internet each bit of DNA it completes decoding. The Human Genome Project has posted 2.3 billion sub-units of DNA that it has decoded on the Internet for use by any scientist.
In contrast to how Celera sequences DNA, the Human Genome Project fits the genetic puzzle pieces together as they are discovered, accumulating larger and what it calls more accurate pieces.
The Human Genome Project also expects to complete a "working draft" of the genome later this year, and to publish a full genetic map on the Internet by 2003.
President Clinton recently announced that the United States and Britain have agreed to openly share data from their efforts to decode the human genetic pattern. A U.S.-British statement urged private companies to follow the lead of government laboratories in sharing data. Some companies have shared data, while others have not.
Celera sai its scientists have been working from both ends of the complex double-stranded DNA that carries the genetic code, so it will now have to reassemble the decoded genes in their proper order. This is expected to be completed over the next few months, the company said in a statement.
"We intend to complete and publish the human data in a form that is consistent with the high-quality Drosophila genome," said J. Craig Venter, Celera's president, referring to the completed sequencing of the genome of a fruit fly that was published in the journal Science last month.
He said the human genome publication "is expected to allow researchers worldwide and our subscribers to utilize our data to make important medical advances."