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At the end of the road in Little Cottonwood Canyon, near Salt Lake
City, Utah, lies Alta, a near-mythic location for skiing enthusiasts.
In time, though, it may well achieve a similar status among molecular
geneticists. In December 1984, a conference co-sponsored by the U.S.
Department of Energy (or DOE) was held there, a conference that
pondered a single question: Does modern DNA research offer a way of
detecting tiny genetic mutations -- and, in particular, of observing
any increase in the mutation rate among the survivors of the
Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings and their descendants? In short, the
answer was, "Not yet;" however, in this atmosphere of intellectual
fertility, the seeds were sown for a project that would make such
detection possible in the future -- the Human Genome Project. In the
months that followed, much deliberation and debate ensued. But in
1986, the DOE took a bold and unilateral step by announcing its Human
Genome Initiative, convinced that its mission would be well served by
a comprehensive picture of the human genome. The immediate response
was considerable skepticism -- skepticism about the scientific
community's technological wherewithal for sequencing the genome at a
reasonable cost, and skepticism about the value of the result, even
if it could be obtained economically. Over the years, though, things
have changed. Today, a worldwide effort is under way to develop and
apply the technologies needed to completely map and sequence the
human genome, as well as the genomes of several model organisms.
Technological progress has been rapid, and it is now generally agreed
that this international project will produce the complete sequence of
the human genome by the year 2005, if not before. And what is more
important, the value of the project is becoming evident in a wide
range of areas. Genome research is revolutionizing both biology and
biotechnology, and it is providing a vital thrust to the increasingly
broad scope of the biological sciences. The impact that will be felt
in medicine and health care alone, once we identify and understand
the function of all human genes, is inestimable. To that end, the
project has already stimulated significant financial investment by
large corporations and has prompted the creation of new companies
hoping to capitalize on the burgeoning market. But the DOE's early,
catalytic decision deserves further comment, as the implications are
more widespread -- and more controversial -- than initially believed.