They are doing enabling research that the private sector should do. If you want to build a better mousetrap, you go to a hardware store to purchase wood, nuts, bolts, glue, fasteners, the tools that you use to invent. Redundancy is a recurring theme in genomics, from shattering multiple genomes to generate sets of overlapping fragments, to installing the equipment to scale up the process. Venter founded Celera, yet he remains as TIGR's chief scientific officer, chairman of the board of trustees, principal investigator on the project to sequence the plant Arabidopsis , and an author on various papers. And once again Venter ruffled feathers, this time with a widely publicized offhand comment to a Japanese official that he could do the job in just six weeks.
Japan is a big player in rice.
Neither Venter nor Fraser sees a conflict between the two organizations, located about four miles apart in Rockville. The companies have an agreement to share technological information and planning for now. But we must maintain a separation. Fraser says she and hubby don't talk business over the dinner table. We both get home so late, and seldom at the same time, that it just isn't an issue.