The Genome War: How Craig Venter Tried to Capture the Code of Life and Save the

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		The Genome War: How Craig Venter Tried to Capture the Code of Life and Save the
		The Genome War: How Craig Venter Tried to Capture the Code of Life and Save the

基本信息·出版社：Ballantine Books
·页码：416 页
·出版日期：2005年06月
·ISBN：0345433742
·条形码：9780345433749
·装帧：平装
·正文语种：英语

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The long-awaited story of the science, the business, the politics, the intrigue behind the scenes of the most ferocious competition in the history of modern science—the race to map the human genome.
On May 10, 1998, biologist Craig Venter, director of the Institute for Genomic Research, announced that he was forming a private company that within three years would unravel the complete genetic code of human life—seven years before the projected finish of the U.S. government’s Human Genome Project. Venter hoped that by decoding the genome ahead of schedule, he would speed up the pace of biomedical research and save the lives of thousands of people. He also hoped to become very famous and very rich. Calling his company Celera (from the Latin for “speed”), he assembled a small group of scientists in an empty building in Rockville, Maryland, and set to work.
At the same time, the leaders of the government program, under the direction of Francis Collins, head of the National Human Genome Research Institute at the National Institutes of Health, began to mobilize an unexpectedly unified effort to beat Venter to the prize—knowledge that had the potential to revolutionize medicine and society.

The stage was set for one of the most thrilling—and important—dramas in the history of science. The Genome War is the definitive account of that drama—the race for the greatest prize biology has had to offer, told by a writer with exclusive access to Venter’s operation from start to finish. It is also the story of how one man’s ambition created a scientific Camelot where, for a moment, it seemed that the competing interests of pure science and commercial profit might be gloriously reconciled—and the national repercussions that resulted when that dream went awry.


From the Hardcover edition.
作者简介 James Shreeve is the author of The Neandertal Enigma: Solving the Mystery of Modern Human Origin, and coauthor of Lucy’s Child: The Discovery of a Human Ancestor. His articles have appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, Discover, National Geographic, Science, Smithsonian, and other publications. He has been a fellow of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and of the Alicia Patterson Foundation. Shreeve lives in South Orange, New Jersey.


From the Hardcover edition.
编辑推荐 From Publishers Weekly
In May 1998, biologist Craig Venter announced that he was founding a company, Celera, that would sequence the genome by 2001, scooping the government's Human Genome Project by four years. This inflammatory announcement sparked a race that was as much about scientific ego and public recognition as about unlocking the so-called book of life. Shreeve (Nature) focuses on the tensions between academia and industry, and the rancor that ensued when Venter, who had previously headed a nonprofit research institute, changed camps. The synthesis of business and science posed new questions: can one patent the entire genome? if so, is protection of intellectual property antithetical to the advance of science? Industry is controlled by the bottom line; academia is chained to the politicians who control funding. Both models must battle a public that doesn't understand the intricacies of the research. Add to this the race to make one of the ultimate discoveries, and you get a mudslinging battle of egos. To back this up, Shreeve gives a healthy dose of the molecular biology involved in clear and vivid terms. He gives readers a fly-on-the-wall view of the scientific posturing and agonizing work behind the revelation of the genome's sequence. Shreeve is more concerned with providing a good yarn than answering the questions these events provokes, and the narrative meanders at times, but it gives a compelling look at the politics and business interests that drive science.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From The New England Journal of Medicine
On Charles Darwin's birthday -- February 12 -- in 2001, two groups of scientists announced simultaneously that the human genome sequence had been completed. The public consortium, involving teams from six countries, published its results in Nature and made them immediately available on the Internet. Craig Venter's company, Celera Genomics, published its paper in Science. Those announcements, although premature (only two rough drafts were available, accompanied by some preliminary analyses), marked one of the few uncontroversial moments in the quest for the human genome sequence. Almost everything else, from the ownership of the results to the molecular and statistical methods used, was the subject of sharp conflict. The title of this book, The Genome War, is only partly exaggerated. No casualties were reported, but all the psychological ingredients of a war were present and are documented in the book. The subtitle is a joke, I hope. The Genome War has something in common with Les Liaisons Dangereuses. In Laclos's novel, the apparent goal of the characters -- to seduce a human being -- is little more than a pretext for a cruel game of power. Two centuries later the pretext has become grander -- the goal no longer centers on a single person, but on the DNA of the species -- but the game is no less cruel. Through 26 dense chapters, Shreeve displays for us the intricate game of personalities and ambitions that ultimately led to the completion of the Human Genome Project. Great stories need great characters. Shreeve chose Craig Venter, and in this choice lies the appeal of the book as well as its main limitation. Venter, or at least the Venter whom Shreeve describes, is the herald of glamour, efficiency, and free enterprise. He enters the book onboard his yacht, and from that moment on, any scientist with "home-cut hair" who wears "whatever old sweater and slacks first presented themselves to him on waking up" has a hard time. Big projects, big money, big rewards for the investors; everything related to Venter is formidable, never mind that certain pages of the book are too much reminiscent, for my taste, of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. On the other hand, to offer a suitable stage for such a character, Shreeve continuously has to create dramatic situations. Often he does so by reporting private conversations and very personal thoughts, which in many cases he cannot have learned from the horse's mouth. As a result, the readers simply do not understand what cocktail of fiction and nonfiction they actually have in their hands. More important, crucial aspects of the story and other key figures -- notably John Sulston, the head of genome sequencing at Britain's Sanger Institute -- are left in the shadows. I doubt that the average reader will realize how important it has been to ensure that the human DNA sequence remains freely available to all (despite and against Venter's wishes). Far too few words are spent to explain that Celera could put together its results only by using the data produced and made available to all by the public consortium. In brief, this is not the most balanced or rigorous book on the Human Genome Project. However, some of its pages are worth reading. I liked this image of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory: "In the hallways and stairwells hang photographs of the original apostles of the new science: Delbruck himself, Salvador Luria, Crick and Watson, Barbara McClintock, Jacques Monod, Alfred Hershey . . . forever young and cocksure, their eyes bright from the birth of ideas that will take their older, grayer selves to Stockholm." Guido Barbujani
Copyright © 2004 Massachusetts Medical Society. All rights reserved. The New England Journal of Medicine is a registered trademark of the MMS. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Bookmarks Magazine
Though he might be admired for his lofty scientific goals, Venter is not a well-liked man. At the time in question, the government called him "Darth Vader." Shreeve merely describes him both as "an inspiration" and an "opportunistic maniac." Genome War pays close attention to this ego-driven biologist. Despite his facade, he comes across as a complex man with deep insecurities. Shreeve, who gained full access to Celera, handles technical information well and reveals the inner bowels of the company. We see the human genome war exclusively from Celera's battle lines, but this perspective (and Venter's often flat portrayal) barely detract from a compelling story about the search for our genetic make-up. To be continued, for sure, with battle lines possibly redrawn.

Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist
Shreeve has predecessors in chronicling the intense, venomous competition between an upstart start-up and the U.S. government to sequence the human genome (e.g., Kevin Davies' Cracking the Genome, 2001). However, he holds an advantage over his authorial rivals: a principal in the affair granted Shreeve access to some of his activities. Flamboyant J. Craig Venter was a monumental annoyance to scientific officialdom. Not only did Venter boast he would decode the genome faster than the feds, he also soiled the endeavor's purity by making money from it. The internal workings of the company Venter formed, Celera, supply much of the action in Shreeve's narrative as he develops, for example, differences between the company's moneyman, corporate executive Tony White, and its idea guy, Venter. In case readers have little appetite for office politics, Shreeve delivers commendably clear discourse on techno-molecular obstacles to sequencing DNA, topped with the vivid drama of Celera's mastery of the problems it encountered in doing so. Shreeve's intimate book is a crucial addition to the history of a major scientific fracas. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.


文摘 CHAPTER 1
MAY 1998: "YOU CAN DO MOUSE"

On May 8 of that year, three months before the Nantucket race, Nicholas Wade, a veteran science writer for the New York Times, entered the lobby of the St. Regis hotel on Fifth Avenue. The day before, he had received a call from a public relations representative of the Perkin Elmer Corporation in suburban Connecticut, offering him an exclusive story on an exciting development. Wade was leery. Public relations people often overestimate the media interest in their company's announcements. In the brash, upstart world of biotechnology, moreover, Perkin Elmer was an unglamorous player--a maker of instruments, not news. But the PR rep mentioned that Craig Venter was a player in the new enterprise. Wade knew that Venter would not be involved in anything unglamorous. He agreed to meet with Perkin Elmer's executives over breakfast.

Wade crossed the lobby and squeezed into an elevator just as its doors began to close. A slightly built, mild-mannered Englishman in his fifties, the Times reporter attracted little attention from the dark-suited businessmen already in the elevator. In the Perkin Elmer suite on the fourteenth floor, he was introduced to CEO Tony White and two other company executives. One was Peter Barrett. The other was Michael Hunkapiller, head of Perkin Elmer's Applied Biosystems division, near San Francisco. Wade knew him by reputation. Largely unknown outside the biotech world, Hunkapiller was a legend within it. In the late 1980s, he had co-invented a machine that could automatically sequence DNA--that is, read out the order of a short stretch of chemical letters in the genetic code. Since then his technical genius and business acumen had made him the linchpin of an ongoing effort to develop better, faster instruments for sequencing DNA and speeding up other biotechnical processes.

A lavish breakfast buffet had been set up on a sideboard. Craig Venter was not in the room, but his voice
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