The Human Genome BookshelfFLICKR, TONY KENNICKThese are gloomy times for government funding for science, as President Barack Obama no doubt recognized when he cited a huge multiple for payback on the human genome project (HGP) in his State of Union address in February. Obama referred to a report by the Battelle Institute, entitled “Economic Impact of the Human Genome Project.” The lengthy document calculates that the $3.8 billion investment in the sequencing of the human genome released a $796 billion torrent of rewards, along with 310,000 jobs. Last month, the president reinforced his vision by announcing that his budget for 2014 will include $100 million for the project called BRAIN: Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies, with the promise of similar returns on investment.
The Battelle Institute is a global research and development organization that frequently publishes reports on science and technology sectors. Although the study has encountered criticism from economists, the sponsors of the research, Battelle, and Life Technologies, a company that sells a number of next generation sequencing tools, stand by their conclusions.
Although one can’t dispute the contribution of the human genome data to various areas of basic research, I would challenge the examples that the authors use to buttress their arguments. Many of those discoveries were accomplished years before even the rough copy of the HGP was available in 2000. Indeed, there were products and therapeutics in the marketplace well in advance of the publication of the HGP. To cite some specifics:
The authors mention ...
