Super DNA Sequencing Facility Planned

Craig Venter has announced plans to create a next-generation high-throughput DNA sequencing facility in Rockville, MD (USA). He will be aided by The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR), the Institute for Biological Energy Alternatives (IBEA), and The Center for the Advancement of Genomics (TCAG), all of which he founded. All are not-for-profit organizations supported by the J. Craig Venter Science Foundation, which will provide administrative support and coordinate policy and research activities. The new facility will also be not-for-profit and will make information freely available to researchers, not selling it as Celera Genomics did.

As the head of Celera Genomics, Dr. Venter was responsible, along with a US government group, for completing the first sequencing of the human genome. The results have enabled researchers to make many new medical findings and develop new drugs. However, as Dr. Venter points out, even though the cost of sequencing a species has rapidly declined from billions to millions of dollars, there is still a need to substantially reduce these costs even further so more people can benefit from the great promise that genomics holds.

TIGR, TCAG, and IBEA are building a facility to rapidly sequence and analyze genomes in a more cost-effective manner. The new facility will utilize the latest developments in automated DNA sequencing, supercomputing, networking, and high-performance storage technologies. The center will also house a research and development laboratory that will explore advanced technologies from a variety of vendors. Research projects include continuation of ongoing biologic energy research that is seeking new organisms and analyzing known organisms that metabolize carbon or create hydrogen. Another project planned will be to use sequencing to better understand ethno-geographic differences among populations.

"As we continue to explore the implications of individual genetic sequences, this information needs to rapidly become an integral part of medical care and preventive medicine,” said Dr. Venter. "One of our goals in building this facility is to make genomic sequencing of the six billion people on this planet technologically feasible so that everyone can benefit and be empowered by this information.”




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