Dollars for DNA
Biotech finally seems near to living up to its hype
Companies are willing to pay top dollar for the information. Pioneer entered a $16 million deal with a genomics company called Human Genome Sciences, in Rockville, Md., in an effort to sequence all 80,000 genes that serve as the blueprint for corn. With that blueprint in hand, says Rick McConnell, director of research at Pioneer, "We can see exactly which genes control productivity and boost it. If farmers make more money with our products, then we are going to be around for a long time." If Perkin-Elmer's new venture delivers on its promise to sequence the entire human genome in three years--and even competitors are betting it can--it will accelerate the pace at which drug companies can transform genes into dollars.
Gene hunting. The Perkin-Elmer start-up will be run by TIGR's Venter, a molecular biologist with a track record of innovative techniques for gene hunting. Venter and Tony White, Perkin-Elmer's chief executive, plan to industrialize the process of sequencing human DNA using a battery of more than 200 high-speed machines specially manufactured for the project, slashing the price of decoding DNA to a tenth of what it is today. The pair expects to make money practically from the start, by putting their raw data on the Internet in monthly or quarterly installments and charging academic scientists a small fee to use it. Venter and White will charge a premium to drug companies for more complete information about the 100 to 300 genes that are likely to be important in human diseases. "We have no debt. We can write a check for this whole venture," says White. "We have a great business opportunity." Once they have finished the human genome, he says, they will begin sequencing the DNA of other organisms such as livestock and crops.
What's next? Look for genes in Silicon Valley, where DNA may one day serve the same purpose that silicon chips do today. Motorola is exploring the possibility of letting the four chemical units that make up DNA carry digital information that is now represented by on and off switches inside a computer, and academic labs have built crude DNA computers that can perform a few simple calculations. If this was the century of the chip, the next will be the century of the gene.
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