The Sequence: Inside the Race for the Human Genome

by Kevin Davies

THE SEQUENCE is the definitive account of what has been described as the single most important scientific breakthrough of modern times – the elucidation of mankind’s complete genetic script. It is a story in which science, politics, business and society meet head on. At its heart is the race between the $3 billion Human Genome Project led by the brilliant geneticist Francis Collins, and a renegade biotech company founded by the scientist-entrepreneur J. Craig Venter. When the Human Genome Project, a 15-year joint project between the US and UK governments, was launched in 1990, it was inconceivable that anyone else would have the technology, the expertise or the financial resources to even enter the race, much less win it. In 1998 Venter announced that his company Celera would use high-powered sequencing machines to complete the sequence from scratch in three years. This riveting book takes the reader into the labs and lives of these and other researchers who in late 2000 completed the first draft of the human genome. Regardless of who ‘won’ the race, the stakes involved in this remarkable work are staggeringly high. From fertility clinics, where embryos are screened for disease genes before implantation, to the courtroom, where the rights to patent and use genetic information will be fought, THE SEQUENCE explores the profound implications of a discovery that will revolutionise our lives.

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, Biology

320 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Born and raised in London, Kevin Davies studied at Oxford University and moved to the U.S. in 1987 after earning his PhD in genetics. He endured two years at the bench before seeking refuge in the editorial office of Nature magazine. He was the founding editor of the journal Nature Genetics and has also worked at Cell Press and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He is currently the editor of Bio-IT World magazine, based in Boston.

The $1,000 Genome is Kevin's third book, and second for the Free Press. He published Cracking the Genome, about the race for the Human Genome Project, in 2000. His first book, Breakthrough, co-authored with Michael White, was about the race to identify the "breast cancer gene" in the mid-'90s.

Reviews

[Ra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting reading with a lot of historical and anecdotal information throughout, which makes it palatable for the lay person. My favorite chapter is the Story of Us (Chapter 8) which details advances in genetic anthropology and DNA fingerprinting.
The whole book gives some sense of genetic mapping, and the technology that helped the sequence of the human genome.