Genome

Scientists have unraveled the DNA of the western honeybee, a feat that researchers say could help illuminate the genetic underpinnings of social behavior. An international team of nearly 200 scientists reported last week that they have identified 10,157 genes. That's fewer than contained in the genomes of the fruit fly, mosquito or silkworm but nonetheless sufficient to produce the only nonprimate species capable of communicating through a symbolic language. The genome of Apis mellifera was published in the journal Nature, along with a series of articles in Science, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and other scholarly journals.

Selling subscription access to genetic information helped shares of Gene Logic Inc. open around $42 on June 26, 2000 - the same day a news conference was held at the White House to announce a completed draft of the human genome. Six years later, that business model also was responsible for a closing stock price of $1.30, after the company warned its earnings would be lower than expected. The Gaithersburg biotech is in the middle of learning a lesson many of its peers have already taken to heart: There's little interest in paying for genetic information, particularly when much of it is available free.

Human Genome Sciences Inc. outlined plans yesterday for taking its lupus drug LymphoStat-B into the final phase of clinical trials before year-end, putting it among a handful of so-called "genomics" drugs to reach that stage. If successful, the drug would be the first lupus treatment approved in 40 years. It's "a critically important step in the evolution of HGS," Chief Executive Officer H. Thomas Watkins said during a conference call yesterday. The 14-year-old company has struggled for years to profit from genetic information, beginning as a research and discovery business and transitioning into drug development.

Human Genome Sciences announced yesterday its first major contract with the U.S. government for an experimental anthrax drug, more than four years after the bacterial infection terrorized the country. But Wall Street's initial reaction was tepid. The federal government plans to purchase 20,000 doses of the Rockville biotech's treatment for $165.2 million, with delivery and 90 percent of the payment expected in 2008. When complete, the deal will give the 14-year-old company its first-ever product sales revenue.

William A. Haseltine had a 55-acre, half-billion-dollar compound and a manufacturing plant built for his former biotech company, Human Genome Sciences, despite its having never brought a single product to market. With a facade made entirely of reflective glass, the six-story corporate headquarters juts into the sky almost invisibly. Inside, an atrium-style lobby has a lush garden and a 100-foot-long sculpture that depicts the birth of a protein. The floor is made of fossilized stone tile, and light filters through panels in the ceiling.

WASHINGTON -- To kick start the development of more successful treatments of common diseases, federal researchers announced at least $60 million in new initiatives yesterday designed to deepen understanding of the roles that genetics and environment play. Dr. Elias A. Zerhouni, director of the National Institutes of Health, presented the programs as a significant step toward speeding up the advent of more personalized treatments for Alzheimer's, cancer, diabetes, heart disease and other major diseases.

Celera Genomics Group, the Rockville biotech that won international fame in the race to map the human genome with scientist J. Craig Venter at the helm, has again outlined plans to reinvent itself since those heady days in 2000. Celera, a division of Applera Corp. of Conn., said yesterday that it will abandon internal drug development efforts to focus on discovering proteins for use by other drugmakers and on creating products to diagnose diseases, an area of recent revenue growth for it. This will be Celera's fourth incarnation in its continuing quest for profitability.

Researchers say they have sequenced the chemical structure of about 1 percent of the genetic material of the woolly mammoth, an Ice Age cousin of today's elephants. In the largest project to analyze the genetics of an extinct creature, scientists extracted DNA from remains found in permafrost. They identified the precise sequence of about 13 million chemical units within the mammoth's DNA, according to the study released today in the journal Science. The researchers report that almost 99 percent of the DNA sequenced was identical to that of modern elephants.

Human Genome Sciences Inc. said yesterday that it would spin off its CoGenesys division as an independent company that will focus on the early development of the Rockville biotech's gene-based research and leave the commercialization of later-stage products already in clinical development to the parent company. Human Genome plans to lend CoGenesys $10 million as startup money, but the move to create two companies is still contingent on CoGenesys finding investors and partners to fund the new company by May 31. Craig A. Rosen, Human Genome's president and chief scientific officer, will become CoGenesys' executive chairman and chief scientific officer.

WASHINGTON -- In a bold but uncertain bid to spur cancer treatment, federal medical researchers announced yesterday a $100 million project to begin cataloging the disease's molecular underpinnings. The Cancer Genome Atlas, as the project is called, will start as a three-year pilot identifying the genes behind two or three types of cancerous tumors. If the research proves promising and affordable, it would be expanded to study thousands of cancerous tumors. Describing the effort as potentially "revolutionary," officials at the National Institutes of Health asserted that the resulting knowledge could quickly lead to the development of more effective cancer drugs and therapies.