WASHINGTON - Scientists said yesterday that they had produced the first full-length record of human DNA, a feat that ranks among the most important in the history of biology and a milestone expected to set the agenda for medical research for the next century.
President Clinton hailed the achievement in the East Room of the White House, flanked by the leaders of two groups that were once locked in a bitter contest for scientific credit.
In the end, the competitors declared a joint victory at a celebration muted by the recognition that the accomplishment, for good or ill, will give humans powerful new tools to control their fate.
"Today we are learning the language in which God created life," Clinton said. "We are gaining ever more awe for the complexity, the beauty, the wonder of God's most divine and sacred gift."
British Prime Minister Tony Blair, linked by satellite to the White House, called it a "momentous day" and termed the reading, or sequencing, of all 3.2 billion chemical units in human DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) "the first great technological triumph of the 21st century."
The complete collection of DNA that each of us carries, called the genome, is the encrypted recipe that guides an embryo's growth into a living, breathing and thinking human being. It controls the day-to-day functions of the body's 60 trillion cells.
The study of the genome will revolutionize the detection, treatment and prevention of diseases ranging from cancer and heart disease to Alzheimer's and schizophrenia.
It could also erode privacy, create new forms of discrimination and lead to a murky future of genetically engineered life.
"We must not shrink from exploring that far frontier of science," Clinton said. "But as we consider how to use [this] new discovery, we must also not retreat from our oldest and most cherished human values."
Two groups - a Maryland biotech company and an international consortium led in the United States by the National Institutes of Health - raced for two years to be the first to complete the work.
For a while, the contest became, as one said yesterday, a name-calling "cat fight."
Leaders of the rival teams agreed to share credit during secret meetings that began May 7 over beer and jalapeno pizza in the basement recreation room of a U.S. Department of Energy official.
Yesterday, the two principals praised each other at the White House and at a news conference later at the Capital Hilton.
