Regardless, the fact the two sides have discussed a collaboration at all indicates they both believe a genome map could be completed more quickly by working together. One possible reason for the breakdown in negotiations is Celera's long-standing insistence that it acquire patents on its gene discoveries. In October, Lee Hood, a genomics researcher at the University of Washington in Seattle, wrote in Nature that the public consortium's random approach to mapping the human genome could become prohibitively expensive toward the end of the project. Hood suggested two weeks ago that the consortium switch to a more ordered approach. Since a working draft of 90 percent of the genome is expected from the public consortium next spring, there's no time to change the strategy now, Hood said.
Sequencers are important, but so are computers.
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