Sulston says: human genome is not for sale

Chemistry and Industry, Feb 19, 2001

The uneasy truce between the two competing teams of human genome scientists has been broken.

Sir John Sulston, who led the UK part of the publicly funded Human Genome Project (HGP) has launched a blistering attack on those trying to privatise human genetic information.

'Others want to charge the rest of the human race a fortune to read our own genetic code,' says Sir Sulston, 'but we are here to tell them that the human genome is not for sale.'

The attack was targeted at HGP's rival Celera Genomics, and specifically Craig Venter who set up the private company in direct competition to the publicly funded venture. Venter has denied he is trying to limit access to his company's data, which has been released on the internet following its publication in Science magazine. However, he has also said he will charge companies that want to use his data for commercial gain.

In contrast, HGP's data, which is published in rival magazine Nature, is available to the world free of charge. The data have been used by scientists in more than 100 countries, researching new medical treatments. They are accessed by at least 10,000 organisations everyday. However, recent reports suggest that Celera Genomics's private database is used by less than 50 subscribers.