Celera ready for genome announcement

DNA is slowly giving up its secrets

By BBC News Online science editor Dr David Whitehouse

The US company racing to produce the first "working draft" of the human genome is understood to have finished its task.

Over the past few weeks, powerful computers at Celera Genomics have been trying to determine the exact order of the 3bn or so individual chemical building blocks, or bases, that make up our genetic code.

A source has informed BBC News Online that this goal was finally achieved at the weekend. An official announcement is expected any day from the company - perhaps as soon as Tuesday or Wednesday.

This would pip the international team of publicly funded researchers who have also been trying to sequence and order all the DNA contained in human cells, and who are on schedule to make their own announcement later this month.

However, the mark is a very fuzzy finishing line. None of Celera's data has been fully open to independent scrutiny. Furthermore, the rough drafts of both the private and public efforts will require extensive "proof reading". Further deep analysis will also be necessary to work out the locations of all the genes written in the DNA.

Major project

This is the real end goal. The genes are the templates cells use to make the protein molecules that build and maintain our bodies. Understanding how they all work will take years - even decades. Some of the workings of genes may never be fully understood.

Nevertheless, just getting a draft version of the "code of life" represents a major scientific achievement. Researchers have laboured for over a decade on what many rightly call the biggest project in the history of biology.

Decoding the genome is a technical achievement that ranks alongside the development of spaceflight and computers.

Celera's speed has been breathtaking. Its robots began sequencing the DNA in September 1999. In January this year, it said it had compiled data covering 90% of the human genome.

In April, Celera claimed it had completed the sequencing phase of the genome from one human being and was using the most powerful computer in civilian hands to put the data in the correct order.

Comparative genomics

Exploiting the data of the human genome is a task that will occupy scientists for years ahead as they begin to understand how living things work on a molecular level and acquire the ability to intervene.

Improved technology has accelerated the whole project

Someday, it may be possible to remove and overwrite bad genes that cause diseases. Someday, perhaps far into the future, we may wish to take control of our own evolution and genetically modify ourselves.

Celera intends to make money by providing subscribers with the ability to compare genomes from various organisms.

Scientists will eventually be able to compare and contrast DNA from the mouse, the fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) and humans, as well as other animals such as the dog and chicken. Celera finished mapping Drosophila melanogaster in March and believe as many as 60% of the fly's genes will be found in human beings.

This science, comparative genomics, is expected to open many new areas of research into the way genes work and the role they play in disease.