Now the race is over. After years of public sniping and several failed attempts at reconciliation, the two sides are taking a step toward detente. HGP 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 that future agreements are more likely to take the form of coordination, rather than outright collaboration. Meanwhile, the benefits of genomic research–from predicting risk for hereditary disease to developing new drugs designed for an individual’s genetic makeup–are still years away.
The squabbling began in earnest in May 1998, when Venter announced that he would form Celera and complete the human genome within three years, using a technique called whole genome shotgun sequencing. At that time, the HGP was shooting for a 2005 deadline, using a slower, more painstaking approach. Speaking at a House Science Committee hearing, biologist Maynard Olson, an HGP supporter, derided Celera’s “science by press release” and said its claims were unrealistic. Venter gave as good as he got, saying at one point, “If I were on the other side of this, I would feel upset and threatened, too.” Both sides ramped up their sequencing capabilities in true arms-race fashion, Celera in order to provide its subscribers with a first look at genomic data, the government to prevent corporate interests from potentially tying up the data with patents and secrecy agreements. “Every piece we get, it’s like saving another block from speculators,” Collins told NEWSWEEK in late 1999.
The conflict blew up this February when Britain’s Wellcome Trust, an HGP participant, released a confidential letter to Celera outlining the HGP’s beefs. 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. “Everyone is sick to death of it,” says Richard Gibbs, who runs the HGP sequencing center at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. “If this ends the horse race, science wins.” With their differences 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.
