The sequencing building for Venter's new human genome company, now under construction adjacent to TIGR, should be a technological Mecca. It will produce more DNA data than the rest of the world's output combined, employing 270 Perkin-Elmer Applied Biosystems 3700 machines, which are now in final development. Venter says the new venture will release all the human genome sequence data it obtains, at three-month intervals. It plans to make a profit by selling access to a database that will interpret the raw sequence data, as well as crucial information on variations between individuals that should allow physicians to tailor treatments to patients' individual genetic makeups. The unnamed new TIGR Perkin-Elmer operation will also patent several hundred of the interesting genes it expects to find embedded within the human genome sequence.
Venter defends patents on genes, saying they pose no threat to scientific progress.
Rather, he notes, they guarantee that data are available to other researchers, because patents are public documents. His new venture will not patent the human genome sequence itself, Venter states. The plan, if it comes to pass, should be a boon for biomedical research. Yet 100 scientists who met recently to make further plans for the existing, more complete and thorough international Human Genome Project were unanimous that it, too, should go forward. Collins wonders whether the entrepreneur at TIGR will be able to stick to his stated policy of releasing all data, given financial exigencies.