Research Institute Posts Gene Data on Internet
- ️Thu Jun 26 1997
June 26, 1997
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
ASHINGTON -- A day after winning freedom from its commercial partner, a cutting-edge genetics research foundation has published a cache of information that may be helpful to scientists worldwide who are working on a variety of diseases, including malaria, cholera and tuberculosis.
The Institute for Genomic Research, a not-for-profit group, released the highly complicated scientific data Tuesday on a Web site set up on conjunction with the National Center for Biotechnology Information at the National Institutes of Health.
The material shares information already accumulated by the private institute on more than 20,000 genes from 11 species of microbes.
"This is the best news we ... have had in years," Lucy Shapiro, a Stanford University biologis, told USA Today. "It allows us to get at the genes used by bacteria to invoke virulence."
David Lipman, director of the National Center for Biotechnology Information in nearby Bethesda, Md., told the paper: "Two days ago, this kind of information wasn't available. Now scientists all around the world will be studying the stuff on their computers and changing experiments right and left."
The data was posted a day after The Institute for Genomic Research, headquartered in Gaithersburg, Md., gave up millions of dollars in exchange for freedom to publish its work.
The institute had been paired for five years with Human Genome Sciences Inc., which tried to develop new drugs based on the institute's work in determining the basic human genetic code or genome.
The institute was the first to determine the entire genetic sequence of a living organism, unveiling in 1995 the genetic code for a bacterium that causes a type of meningitis. It also is one of six institutes participating in the Human Genome Project, which will eventually give science a detailed map of human genetics.
With the end of the relationship, announced Monday, the nonprofit institute is free to pursue other funding, and to publish its research more quickly. Human Genome had financed part of the institute's work in return for the right to study its findings before they were made public.
In return, the institute gives up $38.2 million that Human Genome would have owed it for future research.
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