Just mapping that pattern has taken 10 years and cost billions. At one point, it was the subject of bitter rivalry between the non-profit international Human Genome Project and a corporate effort led by Celera Genomics Inc., of Maryland. Scientists in the U.S., Germany, the U.K. and Japan have been working fast and furious to get the genome sequencing done, Collins said. Venter predicted revolutionary change. Scientists will now focus on identifying the proteins made by genes.
Proteins act as chemical messengers, dictating every function of our cells.
In London, Dr. Michael Dexter of Britain's Wellcome Trust, a part of the public project, said its impact will be greater than putting a man on the moon. But experts say it will take at least five to 10 years for pharmaceutical firms to develop those drugs based on yest erday's announcement. In Toronto, Tsui and geneticist Dr. Steve Scherer, both at the Hospital For Sick Children, are focusing on sequencing chromosome 7, one of the more complicated of the chromosomes. The Sick Kids team undertook the deciphering of 7 because that's the chromosome where Tsui and Collins found the cystic fibrosis gene more than 10 years ago. There are 4,000 genes on chromosome 7, and about 10 per cent of those are probably involved in a particular disease, Scherer said.