What do you think?
Rate this book
The Common Thread: A Story of Science, Politics, Ethics and the Human Genome
The world was agog when scientists made the astounding announcement that they had successfully sequenced the human genome. Few contributed so directly to this feat as John Sulston. This is his personal account of one of the largest international scientific operations ever undertaken.
It was a momentous occasion when British scientist John Sulston embarked on the greatest scientific endeavor of our the sequencing of the Human Genome. In The Common Thread, Sulston takes us behind the scenes for an in-depth look at the controversial story behind the headlines. The accomplishments and the setbacks?along with the politics, personalities, and ethics?that shaped the research are frankly explored by a central figure key to the project.
From the beginning, Sulston fervently proclaimed his belief in the free and open exchange of the scientific information that would emerge from the project. Guided by these principles, The Human Genome Project was structured so that all the findings were public, encouraging an unparalleled international collaboration among scientists and researchers.
Then, in May 1998, Craig Venter announced that he was quitting the Human Genome Project?with plans to head up a commercial venture launched to bring out the complete sequence three years hence, but marketed in a proprietary database. Venter's intentions, clearly anathema to Sulston and the global network of scientists working on the Project, marked the beginning of a dramatic struggle to keep the human genome in the public domain.
More than the story of human health versus corporate wealth, this is an exploration of the very nature of a scientific quest for discovery. Infused with Sulston's own enthusiasm and excitement, the tale unfolds to reveal the scientists who painstakingly turn the key that will unlock the riddle of the human genome. We are privy to the joy and exuberance of success as well as the stark disappointments posed by inevitable failures. It is truly a wild and wonderful ride.
The Common Thread is at once a compelling history and an impassioned call for ethical responsibility in scientific research. As the boundaries between science and big business increasingly blur, and researchers race to patent medical discoveries, the international community needs to find a common protocol for the protection of the wider human interest. This extraordinary enterprise is a glimpse of our shared human heritage, offering hope for future research and a fresh outlook on our understanding of ourselves.
It was a momentous occasion when British scientist John Sulston embarked on the greatest scientific endeavor of our the sequencing of the Human Genome. In The Common Thread, Sulston takes us behind the scenes for an in-depth look at the controversial story behind the headlines. The accomplishments and the setbacks?along with the politics, personalities, and ethics?that shaped the research are frankly explored by a central figure key to the project.
From the beginning, Sulston fervently proclaimed his belief in the free and open exchange of the scientific information that would emerge from the project. Guided by these principles, The Human Genome Project was structured so that all the findings were public, encouraging an unparalleled international collaboration among scientists and researchers.
Then, in May 1998, Craig Venter announced that he was quitting the Human Genome Project?with plans to head up a commercial venture launched to bring out the complete sequence three years hence, but marketed in a proprietary database. Venter's intentions, clearly anathema to Sulston and the global network of scientists working on the Project, marked the beginning of a dramatic struggle to keep the human genome in the public domain.
More than the story of human health versus corporate wealth, this is an exploration of the very nature of a scientific quest for discovery. Infused with Sulston's own enthusiasm and excitement, the tale unfolds to reveal the scientists who painstakingly turn the key that will unlock the riddle of the human genome. We are privy to the joy and exuberance of success as well as the stark disappointments posed by inevitable failures. It is truly a wild and wonderful ride.
The Common Thread is at once a compelling history and an impassioned call for ethical responsibility in scientific research. As the boundaries between science and big business increasingly blur, and researchers race to patent medical discoveries, the international community needs to find a common protocol for the protection of the wider human interest. This extraordinary enterprise is a glimpse of our shared human heritage, offering hope for future research and a fresh outlook on our understanding of ourselves.
First published January 1, 2002
10 people are currently reading
290 people want to read
About the author
John Sulston
11 books4 followersSir John Edward Sulston FRS (born 27 March 1942) is a British biologist. He is a joint winner of the 2002 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Sydney Brenner and H. Robert Horvitz. As of 2012 he is Chair of the Institute for Science, Ethics and Innovation at the University of Manchester.
Sulston was educated at Merchant Taylors' School, Northwood and Pembroke College, Cambridge graduating in 1963 with an undergraduate degree in Organic Chemistry. He joined the department of chemistry in Cambridge, gained his Doctor of Philosophy for research in nucleotide chemistry, and devoted his scientific life to biological research, especially in the field of molecular biology.
After working as a postdoctoral researcher at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies for a while, he returned to Cambridge to work with Sydney Brenner at the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology.
Sulston played a central role in both the Caenorhabditis elegans worm and human genome sequencing projects. He had argued successfully for the sequencing of C. elegans to show that large-scale genome sequencing projects were feasible. As sequencing of the worm genome proceeded, the project to sequence the human genome began. At this point he was made director of the newly established Sanger Centre (named after Frederick Sanger and now the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute), located in Cambridgeshire, England.
Following completion of the 'working draft' of the human genome sequence in 2000, Sulston retired from his role as director at the Sanger Centre. In 2002 he won the Dan David Prize and the Robert Burns Humanitarian Award. Later, he shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Sydney Brenner and H. Robert Horvitz, both of whom he had collaborated with at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB), for their discoveries concerning 'genetic regulation of organ development and programmed cell death'. One of Sulston's most important contributions during his research years at the LMB was to elucidate the precise order in which cells in C. elegans divide. In fact, he and his team succeeded in tracing the nematode's entire embryonic cell lineage. Sulston is now a leading campaigner against the patenting of human genetic information.
Sulston is a distinguished supporter of the British Humanist Association. In 2003 he was one of 21 Nobel Laureates who signed the Humanist Manifesto.
In 2001 Sulston was invited to deliver the Royal Institution Christmas Lecture on The Secrets of Life.
He also provided bail sureties for Julian Assange, according to Mark Stephens, Julian's solicitor. Having backed Julian Assange by pledging bail in December 2010, he lost the money in June 2012 when a judge ordered it to be forfeited, as Assange had sought to escape the jurisdiction of the English courts by entering the embassy of Ecuador.
He was awarded the Royal Society's Rutherford Memorial Lecture for 2013, which he delivered in New Zealand on the subject of population pressure.
Sulston was educated at Merchant Taylors' School, Northwood and Pembroke College, Cambridge graduating in 1963 with an undergraduate degree in Organic Chemistry. He joined the department of chemistry in Cambridge, gained his Doctor of Philosophy for research in nucleotide chemistry, and devoted his scientific life to biological research, especially in the field of molecular biology.
After working as a postdoctoral researcher at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies for a while, he returned to Cambridge to work with Sydney Brenner at the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology.
Sulston played a central role in both the Caenorhabditis elegans worm and human genome sequencing projects. He had argued successfully for the sequencing of C. elegans to show that large-scale genome sequencing projects were feasible. As sequencing of the worm genome proceeded, the project to sequence the human genome began. At this point he was made director of the newly established Sanger Centre (named after Frederick Sanger and now the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute), located in Cambridgeshire, England.
Following completion of the 'working draft' of the human genome sequence in 2000, Sulston retired from his role as director at the Sanger Centre. In 2002 he won the Dan David Prize and the Robert Burns Humanitarian Award. Later, he shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Sydney Brenner and H. Robert Horvitz, both of whom he had collaborated with at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB), for their discoveries concerning 'genetic regulation of organ development and programmed cell death'. One of Sulston's most important contributions during his research years at the LMB was to elucidate the precise order in which cells in C. elegans divide. In fact, he and his team succeeded in tracing the nematode's entire embryonic cell lineage. Sulston is now a leading campaigner against the patenting of human genetic information.
Sulston is a distinguished supporter of the British Humanist Association. In 2003 he was one of 21 Nobel Laureates who signed the Humanist Manifesto.
In 2001 Sulston was invited to deliver the Royal Institution Christmas Lecture on The Secrets of Life.
He also provided bail sureties for Julian Assange, according to Mark Stephens, Julian's solicitor. Having backed Julian Assange by pledging bail in December 2010, he lost the money in June 2012 when a judge ordered it to be forfeited, as Assange had sought to escape the jurisdiction of the English courts by entering the embassy of Ecuador.
He was awarded the Royal Society's Rutherford Memorial Lecture for 2013, which he delivered in New Zealand on the subject of population pressure.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
November 8, 2022
This book is more accessible by scientists and researchers than the general, non-scientifically educated members of the public. The author is a highly-decorated scientist and the writing is quite technical and complex, though I imagine that is due to the author's desire for accuracy.
The opening chapters are tough for someone without a decent grasp of basic genetics, I do not have that and so struggled in the early stages and ended up skipping the opening chapters and I understood the rest of the book well enough without them. These chapters could've been simplified or omitted.
It was around the 1/4 point that things kicked off with the history of the project, establishing the Sanger Centre, international cooperation and PR competition with private labs attempting to kill the public project. This is the value of the book--correcting the record and providing the facts on the funding, goals and ethics of genomic research.
The opening chapters are tough for someone without a decent grasp of basic genetics, I do not have that and so struggled in the early stages and ended up skipping the opening chapters and I understood the rest of the book well enough without them. These chapters could've been simplified or omitted.
It was around the 1/4 point that things kicked off with the history of the project, establishing the Sanger Centre, international cooperation and PR competition with private labs attempting to kill the public project. This is the value of the book--correcting the record and providing the facts on the funding, goals and ethics of genomic research.
October 2, 2013
This book started out slow for me, but when it got into the discussion of private vs. public and the ethics of scientific discovery, I was really intrigued. As someone who works in research, these issues were relevant and made me realize the delicate balances in many aspects of society.
June 22, 2022
‘i regret that nowadays we live in a world where we are materially richer but apparently nothing matters except next years bottom line’
August 11, 2011
The inside story of the genome project, complete with the political interfering from both British and US governments, as well as big business attempting to take ownership of DNA itself.
October 28, 2013
The book is interesting. It describes the sciencce and politics that led to the discovery of the human genome. It is written from the point of view of John Sulston, a Nobel Prize winner.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews