The international effort to sequence the human genome is shaping up into a race between a company and a loose coalition of organisations funded by governments and charities. With efforts to decode the human genetic blueprint accelerating in both camps, tensions are starting to rise over how openly the data will be made available, and whether patents on genes will obstruct progress in developing new drugs. The stakes rose last week when the Wellcome Trust, the world's largest medical charity, raised its contribution to the project by £110 million to £205 million. The trust's team at the Sanger Centre near Cambridge plans to sequence one third of the genome instead of a sixth, as was planned.
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