Craig Venter shows off his genes

One more step up the Genetic Stair Case

The big genetics story (on the front pages of today’s Globe and Star!) of the day was the release of the first individual genome. Craig Venter‘s genome, dubbed HuRef, was published online in the latest issue of PLoS Biology, open-access journal.

The new genome sequence is more extensive than earlier published sequences and includes DNA from both sets of chromosomes, or one from each parent. The genome also provides fresh insight into the extent of individual genetic variation, raising the possibility that genomes between individuals are just 99.5% similar rather than 99.9%.

With such great, and surprising, mass media coverage of the achievement, I only want to highlight two items from The Star:

So why did Venter choose to put himself out there?

“This started back at Celera when I was sequencing the human genome for the first time and there was just so much discussion about how people should be afraid of their genetic codes and how are we possibly going to find somebody’s genome to sequence because … their life histories would all be displayed in the world,” Venter, 60, said in an interview from La Jolla, Calif.

“I thought that was just nonsense,” said Venter, now president of the J. Craig Venter Institute, a non-profit research organization.

“It’s such overinterpretation of what the genetic code can tell us and not tell us. What the genetic code will give us is statistical probabilities and possibilities.”

Venter’s DNA shows he has a high probability of having blue eyes – he does – and a likelihood of elevated cholesterol. His father died of heart disease at 59, but his 84-year-old mother plays golf twice a week.

“There are things like eye colour and exciting things like ear wax viscosity to a propensity for heart disease and potentially Alzheimer’s,” he said of his profile. “I think my autobiography (A Life Decoded, out in October) … is far more revealing than my genetic code could ever be.”

Looking for the Canadian connection to the story? Stephen Scherer, senior scientist in Genetics and Genome Biology at Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children, led the analysis of the Venter genome along with researchers from the US and Spain.

Good on both The Toronto Star and The Globe and Mail for providing such great coverage of this story. Further reading can be found in the New York Times: “In the Genome Race, the Sequel Is Personal”