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Science Friday > Archives > 2000 > June > June 9, 2000: Hour One: Human Genome Project / Genetics Update As rumors swirled around the genetics community that the Celera corporation was within days of releasing the full results of their human genome sequencing work, Craig Venter, head of Celera, and Francis Collins, head of the National Institutes of Health genome project, said that their two projects really were not racing to the finish at all. At an NIH conference on genetics and cancer this week, the two scientists said that their roles "complemented" each other. Furthermore, the Celera leader said that all the company's genome data would be made freely available, not sold privately to pharmaceutical and biotech companies. This unusually friendly meeting between the two scientists comes during a busy time for genetics research. Earlier his month, Celera announced that it had sequenced 1/3 of the mouse genome. In March, the company published the data for the gene sequence of the fruit fly, a favorite of biologists. In other news, the actual number of genes in the human genome is in debate. Estimates range from about 30,000 to over 100,000--but noone really knows. Dueling papers in the journal Nature Genetics, and a debate at a recent conference at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, have increased the speculation. (There's even a sweepstakes running in which scientists bet on the number of genes that code for proteins, winner take all.) Where does the push to sequence the human genome stand, and what's the outlook for the near future? And what will knowing the genome be able to tell us? We'll get a genetics update on this hour of Science Friday.
Guests: Fred Cohen Maja Bucan Related Links:
Produced By: Karin Vergoth |
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