April 10, 2000
VANCOUVER, Canada (AP) -- The chief scientist of an international
organization trying to map the human genetic code has disputed a private
company's claim to have already reached that target.
Dr. Francis Collins of the publicly funded Human Genome Project claims
Celera Genomics, which last week announced it had finished the decoding
phase of one person's genetic code, did not complete even half of its
planned effort.
Craig Venter, Celera's chief scientist, said last week that the U.S.
company will now begin assembling the genetic fragments into their proper
order. The company claimed to have beaten the Human Genome Project, an
international, nonprofit consortium of scientists, in the race to decode
the human genome.
But Collins said Celera had planned to check the sequencing data 10 times,
but instead only did so three times before starting on other ventures.
"There were a couple of unfortunate quotes that implied that they had
sequenced the whole human genome but that's just not true," Collins said of
Celera's claim.
"What we all need to recognize is that for the sequencing for the human
genome, there is not going to be a finish line for any group, for at least
the next couple of years."
Venter was not available for comment.
About 1,000 scientists from 50 countries are to meet this week at a
conference in Vancouver to discuss the latest findings in the decade-old,
multibillion-dollar Human Genome Project.
Copyright 2000 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
(posted without permission)
