The thousand‐dollar genome

Abstract

On May 31 this year, James Watson received the DNA sequence of his full genome in a ceremony at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston (TX, USA). It marked the end of a two‐month project by 454 Life Sciences, a biotech company in Branford (CT, USA) specializing in DNA sequencing, which generated the raw data from a blood sample given by Watson. Baylor College then verified whether the sequence encompassed the entire genome and, on July 6, Watson posted his genome—excluding a portion including the ApoE gene, which he had asked to be redacted—online at the GenBank database maintained by the US National Center for Biology Information (Bethesda, MD, USA). Watson, the co‐discoverer of the double helical structure of DNA and the father of the Human Genome Project, must have expected to be the first person to make his genome publicly available. He was not. Nine days earlier, on June 27, J. Craig Venter, the inventor of the ‘shot‐gun’ sequencing strategy, who once acknowledged a love–hate relationship with his former boss Watson, had posted his own complete genome online prior to a publication (Levy et al , 2007). There was no official race between Venter and Watson to be the first. The timing of the publications of their genomes was the result of two unrelated projects. But what is the rationale for making the genome data of noted geneticists publicly available in the first place? Is it pure scientific research or genetic exhibitionism? Or has science finally embraced celebrity culture? The media hoopla surrounding the sequencing of Watson's genome has already had some commentators worrying that genome sequencing could become the next must‐have for the rich and privileged (Check, 2007). However, beyond the publicity, it is only a matter of time until genome sequencing will be affordable for most …