Life sciences took center stage virtually around the world June 26. President Bill Clinton, flanked on the left by Celera Genomics Group president J. Craig Venter and on the right by National Human Genome Research Institute director Francis S. Collins, announced the completion of "the first survey of the entire human genome." Among others present for the announcement in the White House East Room were ambassadors from the United Kingdom, Japan, Germany, and France. British Prime Minister Tony Blair attended via satellite.
That "survey," of course, is the "working draft" of the human genome produced by the publicly funded international consortium Human Genome Project (HGP) and the "first assembly of the human genome" produced by privately funded Celera Genomics. "Without a doubt, this is the most important, most wondrous map ever produced by humankind," Clinton said of the human genome. He went on to praise Francis Crick and James Watson, ...
