Genetic Code

Recently, an organization called "The Human Genome Project" -- which, incredibly, turns out NOT to be rock band -- announced that it had deciphered the human genetic code. Scientists reacted by holding a joyous celebration. Clearly, then, cracking the genetic code is a big deal for the scientific community. But what does it mean to you, the nonscientist who still secretly believes that radio works by magic? To answer that question, we need to review basic biology. I studied biology under Mrs. Wright at Pleasantville (N.Y.

Balancing on her lab stool, Monique Jenkins quickly flips through her notebook to check how many drops of distilled water to add to the solution. She adjusts her goggles and gingerly picks up a syringe. She's still a little tentative, handling the solution that will be used to try to fathom the secrets of bacterial life in Baltimore's harbor. It's a sophisticated project - especially for this research team. These are not scientists with doctoral degrees; they're high school students from the inner city.

FOR MOST of us, news that scientists have mapped the human genome is mystifying yet intriguing. The scope of the accomplishment of the Human Genome Project, an international consortium, and Celera Genomics, a private Rockville company, is hard to grasp; the process that led to it beyond the comprehension of those who struggled through Biology 101. But like man's first steps on the moon, the event itself stirs a sense of endless possibilities: In this...

Shares of Celera Genomics Group took a beating yesterday as investors cashed in the same day the company made the triumphant but long-anticipated announcement that it had assembled the human genome. The Rockville company's stock traded as low as $108 before closing at $114, down $13, or 10.2 percent. Other genomics stocks also were hit hard early in the day. The Nasdaq Biotechnology Index fell 14.5 percent before enthusiasm about prospects for genomics and biopharmaceuticals brought it roaring back to close at 1,216.

ROCKVILLE - On the day he puts the finishing touches on the first complete human genetic text, computer wizard Gene Myers knows just what he's going to do. He'll whip off his lucky green scarf and crank up Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries" at full volume on his office boombox. Myers and other scientists at Celera Genomics Group are a mischievous group: They sometimes wear plastic Viking helmets, ambush one another with foam arrows and call themselves the "Celerian Valkyrians." Myers, a boyish 46-year-old professor at the University of Arizona, has an earring in his left ear and can talk like a California mall rat. "The excitement is, like, palpable; you feel it in your body," he says.

Celera Genomics, the Rockville company competing with the public Human Genome Project to decipher the human genetic code, said yesterday that it expects to announce the assembly of its version of the human genome in June. That is later than J. Craig Venter, Celera president and chief scientific officer, told members of a congressional committee meeting in early April. At the time, he said the company had finished the sequencing phase of its effort and would complete the assembly phase within three to six weeks.

YOU COULD CALL it "Son of the Fly," a real-life version of the classic Vincent Price sci-fi movie. But it may be more of a "War of the Words" between scientific competitors in the race to complete the human genetic code. Celera Genomics, the Maryland biotechnology firm that decoded the genetic map of the fruit fly, mistakenly included pieces of human genetic material in initial data posted on its Web site. The "human contamination" of the published fruit fly genome, containing some 180 million chemical building blocks, is not fatal to the blueprint.

DECIPHERING the human genetic code, identifying and sequencing more than 100,000 genes that determine the body's development, is a formidable, complex task. So too is the legal challenge to determine what is proprietary information that can be patented by gene research companies, and what genetic information should be public property. In the balance is the discovery and treatment of myriad diseases and genetic disorders, a scientific breakthrough of unthinkable magnitude. Four years ago, the leading industrial nations agreed to an informal program of complete, continuous release of information gathered by the international Human Genome Project.

AIDS researchers and experts warned yesterday that Human Genome Sciences Inc.'s announcement that it had sequenced and patented the genetic code for a key doorway the virus uses to infect cells is no guarantee that any significant new drugs will ever be developed from the breakthrough. In short, don't expect a "cure" or any dramatic new drugs anytime soon. That didn't stop shares in the Rockville-based biotechnology company from spiking higher for a second day yesterday. They closed at $217.

WASHINGTON -- PE Corp.-Celera Genomics Group shares rose 16 percent yesterday after the company said it had sequenced 1.2 billion human DNA base pairs, the alphabet of the genetic code. Shares in the company rose $5.9375 to close at $42.1875, and the company's shares are up 35 percent in two days. Yesterday's rise was the largest one-day percentage gain since Perkin-Elmer Corp. introduced Rockville-based Celera as a tracking stock in April. President and Chief Scientific Officer J. Craig Venter said many of the base-pair sets served as blueprints for molecules that could be used by drug companies to create better therapies.