Now that genomes can be decoded quickly, researchers are debating how to choose which organisms to sequence next. The most conspicuous feature of a recent gene-sequencing meeting in Virginia might have been what was absent: There was no verbal venombetween once-cutthroat competitors. Instead, the Whitehead Institute's Eric Lander and former Celera president J. Craig Venter, their race to sequence the human genome behind them, calmly chatted away. Walking by the pair, Edward Rubin, director of the Department of Energy's (DOE's) Joint Genome Institute in Walnut Creek, California, did a double take. "Instead of shooting at each other, they're pointing their cannons in the same direction," says Rubin.
展开▼
