|
|
Article: Decoding the Human Body: The secrets of life: It is the most expensive, most ambitious biology mission ever. The Human Genome Project, at $250 million and counting, is biology's moon shot. In the eyes of boosters, it promises to provide no less than the operating instructions for a human body, and will revolutionize the detection, prevention and treatment of conditions from cancer to depression to old age itself.(Science and Technology)
- Article from:
- Newsweek
- Article date:
- April 10, 2000
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2000 Newsweek, Inc. All rights reserved. Any reuse, distribution or alteration without express written permission of Newsweek is prohibited. For permission: www.newsweek.com. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
Every Friday morning at 11, the directors of the five labs leading the race to decipher the human genome confer by phone to assess their progress. In mid-March, it was clear they were closing in on the next big milestone: reading the 2 billionth chemical "letter" in human DNA. But since some of those letters were redundant, a count of 2 billion would not really tell how close they were to the finish line of 3.2 billion.
Greg Schuler, a molecular biologist turned computer jock at the National Institutes of Health, had just spent the weekend, sitting on the sofa with his laptop in front of his fireplace at home, writing a 674-line program to reanalyze the overlaps. ...