The two rivals in the race to sequence the human genome each used the Human Genome Meeting '99 (HGM'99) in Brisbane, Australia (March 27–30), to demonstrate their confidence that they will be first past the post.

'Shotgun' sequencing pioneer Craig Venter, made a point of showing that he is unruffled by the announcement of an accelerated timetable for the publicly funded Human Genome Project, and boasted to delegates that his company, Celera, would soon bring online the world's second largest computer, and crank up 300 new sequencing machines capable of processing 140 million base pairs of DNA every 24 hours. Commenting on the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI)-led international bid to map the genome, Venter told Nature Medicine: "I'm confident they're redundant."

Sharing the platform at HGM'99, leading NIH-funded researcher Richard Gibbs from Baylor Human Genome Sequencing Centre, Houston—whose team will receive $13.4 million from NHGRI as part of the $81.6 million devoted to the accelerated schedule—conceded that Celera had "prodded" conservative academics to step up the pace, bringing the target for a rough draft of the human genome forward to April next year, with the blueprint complete by 2003. However, Gibbs reiterated concerns about the ultimate quality and completeness of Celera's data, warning that attempts at wide patenting would be regarded as a mass intellectual property seizure—a "land-grab." Meanwhile, Venter assured delegates that although Celera could conceivably patent 100–300 genes of medical interest, it would not attempt to 'lock up' the human genome.

Venter disclosed that he is working on a genomics research paper to be submitted shortly to a "leading scientific journal," in tandem with an ethical review. The latter will encapsulate the conclusions of a multi-disciplinary group set up by US government adviser, Arthur Caplan, University of Pennsylvania, to wrestle with philosophical issues surrounding the prospect of synthesizing a new life-form. The integration of ethics with research, by publication of dual papers is "the model we should be striving for," says Caplan, adding that it would stop ethicists being simply reactive, and avoid the "frightened media" scenario that followed the Dolly announcement.

In other genome research news...

Both Celera and NHGRI might soon be outclassed by a new initiative unveiled last month that is being managed by The Wellcome Trust, which aims to develop a high-quality single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) map and place it in the public domain with unrestricted access as it is constructed. The Trust, along with ten major pharmaceutical companies, is funding the two-year, $45 million initiative, called The SNP Consortium, which also includes several academic research centers in the US and the UK. It will be led by independent chairman and CEO Arthur Holden.