The announcement will end an ongoing bitter race between the two groups in a tie. Ari Patrinos, associate director of science for biological and environmental research at the U.S. Department of Energy , also will speak at the briefing. The public gene-sequencing program is a joint, international effort of the Human Genome Research Institute at the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Energy, the Wellcome Trust in Britain, the Whitehead Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, along with contributions from researchers in Germany and Japan. Each group used different methods to map the human genome, and each have touted theirs as the best. Venter came up with the shotgun method to chop an organism's genetic information into small bits that could be analyzed in DNA sequencers.
Scientists then use powerful computers to reassemble the bits into a whole.
Celera researchers break the chromosomes into bits, sequence the genes, and then use their supercomputer to assemble the whole genome back into place. This method has proven to be significantly quicker than creating a physical map, but some still question its thoroughness and accuracy. Celera officials announced they had completed the sequencing phase of the human genome map in April, and since then have been assembling it. HGP researchers also break chromosomes into chunks, then sequence the genes. But they keep the genes in line with their chromosome, then create what's called a physical map by knitting the chromosomes back together.