By Adam Kramer
Dr. J. Craig Venter, the man who challenged a publicly funded consortium to a race to decode the human genome in a contest that ended in a tie, warned last week at North Shore Long Island Jewish Health System that the new gene technology should not be used to discriminate against anyone.
As the guest lecturer for the second Florence and Robert Kaufman Lectureship in New and Emerging Concepts in Medicine last Thursday, Venter explained the process he used and the map he traveled to decode the human genome and the positive effects it could have on medicine.
He did not touch on the revelation that the genetic code his company, Celera Genomics, mapped was largely his own.
“Our genetic code is our recorded evolutionary history,” Venter said. “Now we can decode it.”
The genome is the complete set of an organism’s DNA. The DNA, arranged onto 24 distinct chromosomes, provides the instructions that define an organism with its own specific traits. The chromosomes contain many different types of genes that define people’s characteristics.
In a decade people could be carrying around their genetic code, he said, and when a child is born, parents would walk out of the hospital with it on a DVD.
Venter is concerned that people may use the genetic code to discriminate against others and he has been pushing for protection. Venter has been working to get bills passed in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives that would protect people and their genetic codes. The bills seek to ban discrimination in employment and health insurance.
The process of decoding the human genome, he said, is like chopping up the Sunday newspaper and trying to put it back together; there are trillions of possibilities. He said because the researchers could only look at about 500 letter sequences at one time, they needed a way to build upon each sequence.
Comparing the process of decoding the human genome to using Tinkertoys where one can keep adding new pieces, Venter said, he and his team laid out the sequences and found where there was an overlap. They then built upon each sequence until the code was complete.
Using a super computer to do the sequencing, he said, “we based the research on a mathematical formula. If there is not a single mathematical formula, life would not exist.”
Once the genome was mapped, Venter said, the scientist had the chore of annotating the gene pool. So they invited scientists and mathematicians from around the country to help with the task.
“It was the ideal camp for nerds,” he said. “Many of the scientists said they made more discoveries there than in their whole careers.”
Venter is the chairman of the Board of the Institute for Genomic Research and the former president and founder of Celera Systems, which led the way to decoding the human genome.
In 1998, he caused a major uproar when he said Celera Systems would break the human genome code faster and more efficiently than a publicly funded consortium of scientists. Venter’s challenge is credited with significantly pushing scientists to succeed in mapping the genome. Venter has decoded the genome for various organisms from the fruit fly to a mouse, and from a chimp to a human.
Venter received his Ph.d. in physiology and pharmacology from the University of California at San Diego. He worked at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, where he developed a revolutionary strategy for gene discovery.
In 1992, he and his wife, Dr. Claire Fraser, founded the Institute for Genomic Research and then in 1998 he set up Celera Genomics. After starting Celera, he announced that his company could decode the human genome faster and cheaper than the government sponsored consortium of scientists. Venter and the consortium both succeeded in mapping the human genome at the same time.
“Knowing you have an increased risk, you can have a jump-start on monitoring it,” Venter said. “Thus you can try and catch it early. It will provide predictive answers, not yes or no answers.”
Having your genome on a card would not prevent someone from dying, but it could help prevent or postpone the onset of a disease, Venter said. For example, if a gene pool shows a predilection for colon cancer, he said, a person can take preventive action, such as changing his diet.
“People are afraid to see the determination of their own future,” Venter said, “but it gives people tremendous power to change the future.”
Reach reporter Adam Kramer by e-mail at Timesledgr@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 157.
