(Circulation. 2001;103:e9013.)
© 2001 American Heart Association, Inc.
Human Genome in Print
The impatient London media jumped the gun once again on February 11, 2001, by breaking the embargo on the biggest scientific story of the year—the one everyone knew. However, if the planned commencement ceremony for the Human Genome Project fizzled in the face of journalistic hubris, the findings of the project promise to change the face of medicine and biomedical science in the decades to come.
The completed sequence from Craig Venter’s Celera Corporation appears in the February 16, 2001 issue of Science, and the sequence from the public consortium appears in the February 15, 2001 issue of Nature. However, the 2 teams had planned joint news conferences in Washington, DC on February 12, 2001 to insure that neither could claim first publication. Although Dr Venter and leaders of the public effort sought to claim the "star" position, it was the genome that took center stage.
That is why the planned ceremonies were a "commencement," as it were. With the tool of the draft genome in hand, the understanding of human heritage and human future begins in earnest. The completion of the genome is merely the beginning of the quest for the genes that guide human development and the mutations that take it off track.
However, the revealed genome raises many questions and
answers few. In an article in the February 15, 2001 issue of
Nature, David Baltimore, PhD,
president of the California Institute of Technology, wrote: "I’ve
seen a lot of exciting biology emerge over the