WEBVTT

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(Narrator) When I look at this, and these 
are 3 billion

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chemical letters. Instructions for a human

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being, my eyes glaze over,

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(laughing)

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but when scientist, Eric Lander looks at

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this, he sees stories.

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(Eric) The genome is a storybook

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that's been edited for a couple billion

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years, and you couldn't take it

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to bed like a 1,001 Arabian nights and

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read a different story in the genome

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every night.

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(Narrator) This is the story of one of

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the greatest scientific adventures ever.

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And at the heart of it, is a small, very

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powerful molecule, DNA.

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For the past ten years, scientists

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all over the world have been painstakingly

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trying to read the tiny instructions

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buried inside our DNA.

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And now, finally, the human genome has

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been decoded.

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(Craig) We're at the moment the scientists


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wait for. This is what we wanted to do.

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We're now examining

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and interpreting the genetic code.

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(Francis) This is the ultimate

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imaginable thing that one could do,

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scientifically, is to go look at our

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own instruction book, and then try

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to figure out what it's telling us.

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(Narrator) What it's telling us is so

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surprising, and so strange, and so

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unexpected.

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(Narrator) 50% of the genes in a banana

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are in us.
(Eric) How different are you from a banana

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I feel like I can say this with

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some authority, very different

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from a banana.
(Eric) You may feel different from a

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banana.

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All the machinery for replicating your
DNA, all the machinery for controlling

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the cell-cycle, the cell surface, for
making nutrients, all that's the same.

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(Narrator) So what does any of this
information have to do

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with you, or me? Perhaps more than we

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could possibly imagine.

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Which one of us will get cancer, or
arthritis, or Alzheimer's.

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Will there be cures? Will parents in the
future, be able to determine their

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children's genetic destinies.

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(Eric) We've opened the box here

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that's got a huge amount of valuable 
information.

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It is the key to understanding disease

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and, in the long run, to curing disease.

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But having opened it... we're also gonna

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be very uncomfortable with that info

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for some time to come.

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(Narrator) Yes, some of the info

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you're about to see will make you

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very uncomfortable, on the other hand,
some of it, I

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think you will find amazing and hopeful.

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I'm Robert Krulwich, and tonight, we will

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not only report the latest discoveries of

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the Human Genome Project, you will meet

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the people who made those discoveries

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possible, and who competed furiously to

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be first to be done. And as you watch

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our program on the human genome,

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We will be raising a number of issues,

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genes and privacy, genes and corporate
profits,

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genes and the odd similarity between you

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and yeast. And we'd like to have your

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thoughts on all these subjects, so please,

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if you will, login to Nova's website. It's

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located at PBS.org. It'll be there
after the

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broadcast, so do it after the 
broadcast,

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where you can take a survey, 
the results will

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be immediately available and continually

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updated. We'll be right back.

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♪ (Intro music playing) ♪

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(Man) Major funding for Nova is provided

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by the Park Foundation, dedicated 
to education

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and quality television.

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(Man) This program is funded, in-part, by

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the Northwestern Mutual Foundation.

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Some people already know, Northwestern
Mutual can help plan

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for your children's education.

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Are you there yet?

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Northwestern Mutual Financial Network.

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(Woman) Scientific achievement is fueled

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by the simple desire to make things clear.

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Sprint PCS is proud to support Nova.

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(Man) Major funding for this program is

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provided by, "The National Science
Foundation."

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- America's investment in the future.

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(Man) And by the Corporation For Public
Broadcasting

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and by contributions to your PBS station

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from viewers like you.

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Thank you.

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(Narrator) To begin, let's go back 
4-and-some billion years ago

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to wherever it was that the first speck of

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life appeared on Earth.

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Maybe on the warm surface of a bubble.

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That speck did something that's gone on,
uninterrupted ever since.

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It wrote a message. It was a chemical

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message, that it passed to its children

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and passed it on to its children, and

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to its children, and so on.

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The message has passed from the very first

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organism, all the way down through time, 
to you and me.

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Like a continuous thread, through all

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living things.

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It's more elaborate, now, of course, but

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that message is, very simply, is the

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secret of life.

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And here is that message, contained in

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this stunning little constellation of

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chemicals, we call, "DNA".

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You've seen it in this form, the classic

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"Double Helix", but since we're gonna be

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spending a lot of time talking about

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DNA, I wondered what it looks like when

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it's raw, ya know, in real life?

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So, I asked an expert.

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Eric Lander - DNA has a reputation for

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being such a mystical, highfalutin sort of

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molecule. All this information, your

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future, your heredity, it's actually goop.

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See, this here is DNA.

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(Narrator) Professor Eric Lander is a

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geneticist at MIT's Whitehead Institute.

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(Eric) It's very very long strands of

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molecules. These double helices of DNA, 
which, when you get them all

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together, just look like little threads
of cotton.

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(Narrator) And these strands were

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literally pulled from cells. Blood
cells, maybe skin cells, of a human being.

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Eric - Whoever contributed this DNA,

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you can tell from this whether or not they

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might be at early risk for Alzheimer's

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disease. You can tell if they might be at

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early risk for breast cancer.

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And there's probably about 2,000 other

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things you can tell, that we don't know

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how to tell yet, but we'll be able

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to tell. And it's, really, incredibly
unlikely that you could tell

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all that from this.

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But, that's DNA for you.

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That, apparently, is the secret of life,

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just hanging off there on the tube.

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(Narrator) And already, DNA has told

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us things that no one, no one had
expected.

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It turns out that human beings have only

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twice as many genes as a fruit fly.

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Now how can that be?

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We are such complex and magnificent
creatures, and fruit flies, well, uh,

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they're fruit flies.

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DNA also tells us that we are more closely
related to worms and to yeast than

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most of us would ever have imagined.

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But how do you read what's inside a
molecule?

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Well, if it's DNA, if you turn it so you

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can look at from just the right angle,

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you will see, in the middle, what

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look like steps in a ladder.

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Each step is made up of two chemicals,

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"Cytosine" and "Guanine", or
"Thymine" and "Adenine".

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They come, always, in pairs called,
"Base-Pairs" either C and G, or T and A,

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for short.

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This is, step-by-step, a code.

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Three-billion steps long; the formula for

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a human being.

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We're all familiar with this thing.

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This shape is very familiar.

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(Eric) Double Helix.
(Narrator) Double Helix.

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First of all, I want to... this is my

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version of a DNA molecule.

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Is this, by the way, what it looks like?

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(Eric) Well, ehm, give or take... a
cartoon version of it.

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I mean, a little like that, yeah.

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(Narrator) So there are, in almost every 
cell in your body, if you look deep

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enough, you will find this chain here?

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Eric - Oh, yes, stuck in the nucleus of
your cell.

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Narrator - Now how small is this?

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In a real DNA molecule, the distance

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between the two walls is how wide?

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Eric - Oh, golly.

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(Narrator) Look at this, he's asking for
help.

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(laughing)

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Eric -This distance is about 
10 Angstroms.

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(Narrator) That's one-billionth of a meter

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when it's clumped up in a very particular
way.

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Eric - Well, no, it's curled up sort of
like that, but, it's more than that.

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You can't curl it up too much, bc
these little negative charge things

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will repel each other. So, you fold it on
itself.

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I'm gonna break your molecule..

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Narrator - Yeah, don't break my molecule.

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Eric - Ya know, ya got this
and then it's folded up like this

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and then those are folded up on top

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of each other. And, so, in fact, if you

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were to stretch out all of the DNA, it

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would run, oh I don't know, thousands

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and thousands of feet.

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Narrator - Okay.

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The main thing about this, is

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the ladder, the steps of this ladder.

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Narrator - If I knew it was "A" and "T"
and "C" and "C" and "G" and "G" and "A"...

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Eric - Oh, no, it's not "'G' and 'G', it's
'G' and 'C'. It's the grammar...

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Narrator - If I could read each of the

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individual ladders, I might find the

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picture of... what?

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Eric - Of your children.

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This is what you pass to your children.

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Ya know, people have known for 2,000
years that your kids look a lot

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like you. Well, it's because you must pass

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them something... Some instructions that

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give them the eyes they have and hair

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they have, and the nose shape they do.

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The only way you pass it to them is in

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these sentences. That's it.

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(Narrator) And to show you the true power

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of this molecule, we're gonna start with

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one atom, deep inside.

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We pull back and see it form its "A"'s and
"T"'s and "C"'s and "G"'s and the

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classic double spiral....

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And then starts the mysterious process

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that creates a healthy new baby.

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♪ (music playing) ♪

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And the interesting thing is that every

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human baby, every baby born, is 99.9%

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identical in it's genetic code to every

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other baby.

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So, the tiniest differences in our genes

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can be hugely important.

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Can contribute to differences in height,

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physique, maybe even talents, aptitudes,

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and it also explain what can break...

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What can make us sick.

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Cracking the code of those minuscule

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differences in DNA, that influence health

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and illness, is what the Human Genome
Project is all about.

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Since 1990, scientists all over the world

00:12:30.838 --> 00:12:32.658
in university and government labs have

00:12:32.658 --> 00:12:34.918
been involved in a massive effort to read

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all three-billion A's, T's, G's, and C's

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of human DNA.

00:12:39.968 --> 00:12:41.838
They predicted it would take, at least

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15 years. That was partly because, in the
early days of the project,

00:12:48.258 --> 00:12:51.238
a scientist could spend years, an entire

00:12:51.238 --> 00:12:54.008
career, trying to readjust a handful of

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letters in the human genome.

00:12:56.048 --> 00:12:59.408
It took 10 years to find the one genetic

00:12:59.408 --> 00:13:02.478
mistake that causes Cystic Fibrosis.

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Another 10 years to find the gene for

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Huntington's Disease.

00:13:06.368 --> 00:13:09.248
15 years to find one of the genes that

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increase the risk for breast cancer.

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One letter at a time, painfully slowly,

00:13:16.728 --> 00:13:21.248
frustratingly prone to mistakes, and

00:13:21.248 --> 00:13:23.718
false leads.

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We asked Robert Waterston, a pioneer in

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mapping DNA, to show us the way it

00:13:28.238 --> 00:13:29.878
used to be done.

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(Robert) The original ladders for DNA

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sequence, we actually read by putting a

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little letter next to the band that we

00:13:38.158 --> 00:13:40.348
were calling and then writing those

00:13:40.348 --> 00:13:42.228
down on a piece of paper, or into the

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computer after that.

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Uh, it's horrendous.

00:13:46.888 --> 00:13:48.798
(Narrator) And we haven't mentioned the

00:13:48.798 --> 00:13:52.798
hardest part. This part here, magnified
50 thousand times, is an actual

00:13:52.798 --> 00:13:56.668
clump of DNA Chromosome -17.

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If you look inside, you find, of course,

00:13:58.578 --> 00:14:03.218
hundred of millions of A's, and C's, and
T's, and G's, but it turns out

00:14:03.218 --> 00:14:07.218
that only about 1% of them are active

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and important. These are the genes

00:14:09.498 --> 00:14:11.168
that scientists are searching for.

00:14:11.168 --> 00:14:13.318
So, somewhere in this dense chemical

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forest, are genes involved in deafness,

00:14:15.438 --> 00:14:19.438
Alzheimer's, cancer, cataracts, but where?

00:14:19.438 --> 00:14:23.438
This is such a maze, scientists need a
map.

00:14:23.438 --> 00:14:25.638
But at the old pace, that would take close

00:14:25.638 --> 00:14:28.638
to forever.

00:14:28.638 --> 00:14:32.638
And then came the revolution.

00:14:33.781 --> 00:14:36.231
In the last 10 years the entire process

00:14:36.231 --> 00:14:39.821
has been computerized, that costed

00:14:39.821 --> 00:14:43.821
hundreds of millions of dollars.

00:14:44.826 --> 00:14:46.986
But now, instead of decoding only a few

00:14:46.986 --> 00:14:50.326
hundred letters by hand in a day...

00:14:50.430 --> 00:14:54.430
together, these machines can do 1,000
every second.

00:14:55.111 --> 00:14:59.111
And that has made all the difference.

00:14:59.111 --> 00:15:00.951
(Man) This is something that is gonna

00:15:00.951 --> 00:15:02.951
go in the textbooks. Everybody knows
that.

00:15:02.951 --> 00:15:04.941
Everybody, when the Genome Project was

00:15:04.941 --> 00:15:08.741
being born, was consciously aware of their

00:15:08.741 --> 00:15:10.581
role in history.

00:15:10.581 --> 00:15:15.731
(Narrator) Getting the letters out is, has
been described as, finding the

00:15:15.731 --> 00:15:18.391
blueprint of a human being, finding

00:15:18.391 --> 00:15:20.721
the manual for a human being,

00:15:20.721 --> 00:15:24.111
finding the code of a human being.

00:15:24.111 --> 00:15:25.631
What's your metaphor?

00:15:25.631 --> 00:15:28.731
Eric - Oh, golly gee. I mean, you can have

00:15:28.731 --> 00:15:30.731
very highfalutin metaphors for this kind

00:15:30.731 --> 00:15:33.301
of stuff. This is basically a parts list.

00:15:33.301 --> 00:15:35.261
Blueprints and all these fancy names...

00:15:35.261 --> 00:15:36.671
it's just a parts list.

00:15:36.671 --> 00:15:39.551
It's just a parts list with a lot of
parts.

00:15:39.551 --> 00:15:42.121
If you take an airplane, a Boeing 777,

00:15:42.121 --> 00:15:44.031
I think it has like a hundred-thousand

00:15:44.031 --> 00:15:46.231
parts. If I gave you a parts list for the

00:15:46.231 --> 00:15:48.951
Boeing 777, in one sense you'd know a

00:15:48.951 --> 00:15:50.591
lot. You'd know a hundred-thousand

00:15:50.591 --> 00:15:52.311
components that have gotta be there.

00:15:52.311 --> 00:15:54.171
Screws and wires and rudders and things

00:15:54.171 --> 00:15:56.731
like that. On the other hand, I bet you

00:15:56.731 --> 00:15:58.681
wouldn't know how to put it together and

00:15:58.681 --> 00:16:00.601
I bet you wouldn't know why it flies.

00:16:00.601 --> 00:16:02.441
Well, we're in the same boat... We now

00:16:02.441 --> 00:16:05.601
have a parts list. That's what The Human 
Genome Project is about.

00:16:05.601 --> 00:16:07.241
It's about getting the parts list.

00:16:07.241 --> 00:16:09.001
If you want to understand the plane,

00:16:09.001 --> 00:16:10.781
you have to have the parts list, but

00:16:10.781 --> 00:16:12.501
that's not enough to understand why

00:16:12.501 --> 00:16:14.431
it flies. But, of course, you'd be crazy

00:16:14.431 --> 00:16:16.071
not to start with the parts list.

00:16:16.071 --> 00:16:19.291
And one reason it’s so important 
to understand all those parts is

00:16:19.291 --> 00:16:22.391
to decode every letter of the genome,

00:16:22.391 --> 00:16:28.341
Is because sometimes out of 3 billion base
pairs in our DNA, just one single letter

00:16:28.341 --> 00:16:32.341
can make a difference.

00:16:36.069 --> 00:16:40.069
Alice and Tim Lord are parents of 
two-year-old Hayden,

00:16:40.569 --> 00:16:44.569
Alice – good morning
Tim – hey pumpkin

00:16:47.558 --> 00:16:51.558
(Tim) – the two things that I think of the 
most about Hayden, which a lot of people .

00:16:51.558 --> 00:16:56.748
got from him right from the beginning
was that he was always very funny

00:16:58.423 --> 00:17:02.423
Alice - Make your very very very serious 
face. I love you

00:17:02.555 --> 00:17:08.245
(Tim) – he loved to smile and laugh, 
he used to guffaw this was later when he

00:17:08.245 --> 00:17:13.045
was a year old he just found the funniest 
things hilarious he and I would just crack


00:17:13.045 --> 00:17:17.815
each other up.

00:17:20.055 --> 00:17:24.775
(Narrator) Hayden seemed to be developing 
normally but Allison began to notice

00:17:24.775 --> 00:17:31.505
that some things were not quite right. 
Allison – I was very anxious all the time

00:17:31.505 --> 00:17:37.045
with Hayden. I was certain things were 
not the same. I would see friends

00:17:37.045 --> 00:17:39.765
changing the diaper of their child 
that was around the same age

00:17:39.765 --> 00:17:43.765
and see the physical movement 
and the legs movement and

00:17:43.765 --> 00:17:47.125
Hayden didn’t do that


00:17:47.125 --> 00:17:50.495
♪ (Singing “Happy Birthday”) ♪

00:17:50.495 --> 00:17:54.395
Narrator – Doctors told them that Hayden 
was just developing a bit slowly, but

00:17:54.395 --> 00:17:58.235
by the time he turned a year old, it was
clear that something serious was wrong.

00:18:02.725 --> 00:18:06.725
he never crawled, he never talked, 
never ate with his fingers,

00:18:06.725 --> 00:18:10.725
and he seemed to be going backwards, not 
progressing.

00:18:10.833 --> 00:18:14.833
(Tim) – I remember the last time he laughed.

00:18:14.833 --> 00:18:18.833
I took a trip with him out to buy a suit 
to a wedding that night

00:18:18.833 --> 00:18:23.533
and we came back and it was really windy,
he just loves to fill the wind,

00:18:23.533 --> 00:18:29.663
so we had a great time. We came back and 
I brought them up on the couch and sat

00:18:29.663 --> 00:18:33.983
next to him and he just kind of threw his
head back and laughed.

00:18:33.983 --> 00:18:36.453
Like, oh, what a fun trip! Ya, know...

00:18:36.453 --> 00:18:43.303
It was the last time he was able to 
laugh, it’s really hard.


00:18:56.286 --> 00:18:59.746
(Narrator) – it turned out that Hayden 
had Tay-Sachs disease. A genetic

00:18:59.746 --> 00:19:03.306
condition that slowly destroys 
a baby’s brain

00:19:05.330 --> 00:19:09.330
(Kolodny) – What happens is a baby appears 
normal at birth,

00:19:09.330 --> 00:19:15.880
and over the course of the first year, 
begins to miss developmental milestones.

00:19:17.588 --> 00:19:19.628
So at six months a child should be turning


00:19:19.628 --> 00:19:26.388
over but is unable to sit up, to stand, to
walk, to talk.

00:19:28.344 --> 00:19:33.244
(Narrator) – Tay-Sachs disease begins at
one infinitesimal spot on the DNA ladder

00:19:33.244 --> 00:19:38.344
if just one letter goes wrong, say this
cluster of atoms is a picture of that

00:19:38.344 --> 00:19:43.164
letter. A mistake here can come 
down to just four atoms, that’s it.

00:19:44.203 --> 00:19:49.313
But since genes create proteins, 
that error creates a problem

00:19:49.313 --> 00:19:54.073
in this protein, which is supposed to 
dissolve fat in the brain. And now

00:19:54.073 --> 00:19:58.613
the protein doesn’t work, so fat 
builds up, swells the brain, and

00:19:58.613 --> 00:20:05.363
destroys critical brain cells. And 
all of this is the result of one

00:20:05.363 --> 00:20:08.343
bad letter in that baby’s DNA.

00:20:10.141 --> 00:20:14.141
Kolodny – in most cases it’s a single 
base change as we say, a letter

00:20:14.141 --> 00:20:17.321
difference.

00:20:17.321 --> 00:20:22.021
(Narrator) – One defective letter out 
of 3 billion. And no way to fix it.

00:20:22.021 --> 00:20:28.921
Tay-Sachs is a relentlessly progressive 
disease. In the years since his 


00:20:28.921 --> 00:20:36.591
diagnosis Hayden has gone blind, can’t 
eat solid food, it’s harder for him to

00:20:36.591 --> 00:20:42.991
swallow, he can’t move on his own, 
and he has seizures as many as 10

00:20:42.991 --> 00:20:45.081
times a day.

00:20:45.081 --> 00:20:48.541
Kolodny – for children with classical 
Tay-Sachs disease, there is only one

00:20:48.541 --> 00:20:58.731
outcome. Children die by age 5 to 7. 
Sometimes even before age 5.


00:21:00.401 --> 00:21:05.121
(Narrator) – as it happens, Tim has an 
identical twin brother. When Hayden

00:21:05.121 --> 00:21:09.121
was diagnosed, that brother, Charlie 
went to New York to be with him.

00:21:11.822 --> 00:21:17.682
Charlie’s wife Blythe had had been 
Allison’s roommate in college and

00:21:17.682 --> 00:21:21.682
her best friend.

00:21:21.682 --> 00:21:26.802
Blythe – Charlie called me on the phone 
and told me to Hayden had Tay-Sachs 


00:21:26.802 --> 00:21:32.126
and explained I went to the computer and 
looked it up and then just couldn’t

00:21:32.126 --> 00:21:37.016
believe what I read.
(Blythe and Taylor talking)

00:21:37.840 --> 00:21:41.470
(Narrator) – Blythe and Charlie had a 
three-year-old daughter Taylor and a

00:21:41.470 --> 00:21:45.470
baby girl named Cameron. Cameron 
was happy and healthy except for one

00:21:45.470 --> 00:21:50.610
small thing.
Blythe – on the NTSAD website it talks

00:21:50.610 --> 00:21:54.230
about that typically between six and 
eight months is when the signs start

00:21:54.230 --> 00:21:58.710
coming. But one of the early signs is 
that they startle easily and Hayden

00:21:58.710 --> 00:22:04.350
had always had a heavy startle 
response. We noticed that Cameron

00:22:04.350 --> 00:22:12.320
had a comparable startle response. 
Not as severe, but absolutely not

00:22:12.320 --> 00:22:15.660
like Taylor had had.
(Narrator) – as soon as she saw

00:22:15.660 --> 00:22:20.180
that early warning sign on the Tay-Sachs
website, Blythe went to get herself and

00:22:20.180 --> 00:22:24.530
Cameron tested.
(Charlie) – it was another week until we

00:22:24.530 --> 00:22:28.670
got the final results on Cameron’s 
bloodwork. And then the Tuesday before

00:22:28.670 --> 00:22:33.270
Thanksgiving, we went into our 
pediatrician’s office we had the results

00:22:33.270 --> 00:22:39.410
that Blythe was a carrier and Cameron 
had Tay-Sachs


00:22:39.410 --> 00:22:50.710
Blythe – all I said was “I’m sorry.”
(Narrator) – Tay-Sachs is a very rare

00:22:50.710 --> 00:22:55.900
disease that usually occurs in specific 
groups, like Ashkenazi Jews, but even

00:22:55.900 --> 00:23:01.860
then the baby must inherit the gene 
from both parents. So even though

00:23:01.860 --> 00:23:06.080
there is a Tay-Sachs test, the Lords had 
no reason to think they would be a risk.


00:23:10.810 --> 00:23:19.270
And yet incredibly all four of them, Tim 
and Charlie and both their wives, were

00:23:19.270 --> 00:23:25.120
carriers. That was an unbelievably bad 
role of the genetic dice.

00:23:26.906 --> 00:23:35.186
Tim – Charlie and I are incredibly close 
and have been all our lives. And when I

00:23:35.186 --> 00:23:40.026
think about him and Blythe having to go
through this it seems really cruel

00:23:43.556 --> 00:23:50.866
Charlie – I had already geared myself up 
to be my brother’s rock. And I couldn’t

00:23:50.866 --> 00:24:00.806
imagine having to help him and go 
through it myself <i>voice breaks</i>

00:24:04.553 --> 00:24:09.563
(Narrator) – for families like the Lords 
and for everybody, the Human Genome

00:24:09.563 --> 00:24:13.823
Project offers the chance to find out 
early if we’re at risk for all kinds of

00:24:13.823 --> 00:24:21.293
diseases.
Tim Lord - I would like to see a really

00:24:21.293 --> 00:24:28.373
aggressive push to develop a test for 
hundreds of genetic diseases, so that

00:24:28.373 --> 00:24:32.133
parents could be 
informed before they start to have

00:24:32.133 --> 00:24:42.003
children as to the dangers that faced 
them. I think it’s within our grasp, now

00:24:42.003 --> 00:24:45.744
that we’ve mapped the human genenome, 
the information is there for people to

00:24:45.744 --> 00:24:55.814
begin to sort through
Tim – (talking to Hayden), “all right

00:24:55.814 --> 00:25:00.234
pumpkin”
(Tim) – they are horrible horrible

00:25:00.234 --> 00:25:05.194
diseases. If there is any way you could
be tested for a whole host of them and 


00:25:05.194 --> 00:25:08.724
not have them
affect the child, I think it’s something 


NOTE Paragraph

00:25:08.724 --> 00:25:12.724
that we have to focus on


00:25:19.823 --> 00:25:25.863
(Narrator) – Hayden Lord died a few months
before his third birthday.

00:25:28.241 --> 00:25:30.201
Narrator - what makes this story

00:25:30.201 --> 00:25:32.441
especially hard to bear is we now know

00:25:32.441 --> 00:25:34.691
that a loss that huge, and it was a

00:25:34.691 --> 00:25:37.071
catastrophe by any measure, started

00:25:37.071 --> 00:25:41.071
with a single error, a few atoms across,

00:25:41.071 --> 00:25:44.341
buried inside a cell. Now, if something

00:25:44.341 --> 00:25:47.431
so small could trigger such an enormous

00:25:47.431 --> 00:25:49.621
result, is a perspective that is

00:25:49.621 --> 00:25:51.921
incredibly frightening.

00:25:51.921 --> 00:25:53.891
Except, that now geneticists have figured

00:25:53.891 --> 00:25:56.111
out how to see many of these tiny errors

00:25:56.111 --> 00:25:59.151
before they become catastrophes.

00:25:59.151 --> 00:26:00.931
When you think about that, that's an

00:26:00.931 --> 00:26:03.601
extraordinary thing, to spot a catastrophe

00:26:03.601 --> 00:26:07.001
when it's still an insignificant dot in a
cell.

00:26:07.001 --> 00:26:10.011
Which is the promise of the Human Genome
Project.

00:26:10.011 --> 00:26:12.571
It is first and foremost, an early warning

00:26:12.571 --> 00:26:14.981
system for a host of diseases, which

00:26:14.981 --> 00:26:18.981
will give, hopefully, parents, doctors,
and scientists an advantage

00:26:18.981 --> 00:26:21.481
that we have never had before. When you

00:26:21.481 --> 00:26:23.961
can see trouble coming way way before

00:26:23.961 --> 00:26:25.911
it starts you have a chance to stop it

00:26:25.911 --> 00:26:29.561
or treat it... eventually, you might cure
it.

00:26:30.636 --> 00:26:32.576
(Narrator) And that's why, when Congress

00:26:32.576 --> 00:26:35.886
created the Human Genome Project in
1990, the challenge was

00:26:35.886 --> 00:26:41.886
to get a complete list of our A's, T's,
C's, and G's as quickly as possible.

00:26:41.886 --> 00:26:44.096
So, the business of making tests,

00:26:44.096 --> 00:26:47.766
medicines, and cures could begin.

00:26:47.766 --> 00:26:50.716
They figured it would take about 15 years

00:26:50.716 --> 00:26:52.956
to decode a human being, and at the time,

00:26:52.956 --> 00:26:55.516
that seemed reasonable.

00:26:55.516 --> 00:26:58.216
Until this man: scientist, entrepreneur,

00:26:58.216 --> 00:27:00.756
and speed-boat enthusiast, Craig Venter,

00:27:00.756 --> 00:27:05.036
decided that he could do it faster, much
faster.

00:27:05.036 --> 00:27:07.146
(Craig) It's like sailing. Once you have

00:27:07.146 --> 00:27:09.496
two sailboats on the water going

00:27:09.496 --> 00:27:11.326
approximately the same direction,

00:27:11.326 --> 00:27:13.456
they're racing. And science works very

00:27:13.456 --> 00:27:17.136
much the same way. If you have two labs

00:27:17.136 --> 00:27:19.676
Craig - remotely working on the same
thing,

00:27:19.676 --> 00:27:23.906
one tries to get there faster, better, or

00:27:23.906 --> 00:27:28.636
higher quality... something different,
in part, because our society

00:27:28.636 --> 00:27:31.556
recognizes only "First Place".

00:27:32.065 --> 00:27:34.105
(Narrator) Back in 1990, Vinter was one

00:27:34.105 --> 00:27:37.785
of many government scientists
painstakingly decoding

00:27:37.785 --> 00:27:40.755
proteins and genes, his focus was one

00:27:40.755 --> 00:27:42.735
protein in the brain.

00:27:42.735 --> 00:27:46.155
Vinter - I took 10 years to get the
protein, and it took a whole year

00:27:46.155 --> 00:27:48.415
to get 1,000 letters of genetic code.

00:27:48.415 --> 00:27:50.875
(Narrator) For Venter, that was way too
slow.

00:27:50.875 --> 00:27:53.585
Narrator - So, you're sitting there
thinking there must be

00:27:53.585 --> 00:27:55.385
a better way when you were gazing out

00:27:55.385 --> 00:27:56.115
the window.

00:27:56.115 --> 00:27:58.065
Vinter - There HAD to be a better way.

00:27:58.065 --> 00:28:00.095
(Narrator) And that's when he learned that

00:28:00.095 --> 00:28:03.565
someone had invented a new machine
that could identify C's and T's and A's

00:28:03.565 --> 00:28:05.265
and G's with remarkable speed.

00:28:05.265 --> 00:28:08.775
And Craig Venter just loves machines that

00:28:08.775 --> 00:28:10.085
go fast.

00:28:10.085 --> 00:28:11.835
Vinter - I immediately contacted the

00:28:11.835 --> 00:28:14.635
company to see if I could get one of the
first machines.

00:28:15.369 --> 00:28:17.209
(Narrator) - And here's how they work:

00:28:17.209 --> 00:28:20.029
Human DNA is chopped by robots into tiny

00:28:20.029 --> 00:28:23.179
pieces. These pieces are copied over and

00:28:23.179 --> 00:28:25.809
over again in bacteria and then tagged

00:28:25.809 --> 00:28:29.809
with colored dyes.

00:28:30.481 --> 00:28:33.611
A laser bounces light off of each snip of

00:28:33.611 --> 00:28:36.991
DNA and the colors that it sees represent

00:28:36.991 --> 00:28:40.081
individual letters in the genetic code.

00:28:40.081 --> 00:28:43.011
And these computers can do this 24 hours

00:28:43.011 --> 00:28:46.281
a day, everyday.

00:28:46.281 --> 00:28:49.311
Venter - See, now you can see clearly the
peaks.

00:28:49.311 --> 00:28:51.201
So, there's just a blue on coming up so

00:28:51.201 --> 00:28:53.391
that's a "C" coming up. You could read

00:28:53.391 --> 00:28:55.841
this and you could write this all down.

00:28:55.841 --> 00:28:59.391
(Narrator) So, blue, yellow, red, red,
yellow...

00:28:59.391 --> 00:29:02.841
Venter - So, that's C, G, T, T, A.

00:29:02.841 --> 00:29:04.771
(Narrator) And, somehow all these little

00:29:04.771 --> 00:29:10.181
pieces have to be put together again in
the right order. Venter's dream was to

00:29:10.181 --> 00:29:12.491
have hundreds of new machines at his

00:29:12.491 --> 00:29:15.221
fingertips, so he quit is government job

00:29:15.221 --> 00:29:16.741
and formed a company he called,

00:29:16.741 --> 00:29:19.591
"Celera Genomics". "Celera", from the

00:29:19.591 --> 00:29:22.751
Latin word, "Celerity", meaning, "Speed".

00:29:22.751 --> 00:29:25.791
And this is what he built.

00:29:25.791 --> 00:29:29.191
Narrator - Oh my Lord. And you know what's

00:29:29.191 --> 00:29:31.271
interesting is there's almost nobody here.

00:29:31.271 --> 00:29:34.821
Vinter - Yeah. It's all automated.

00:29:34.821 --> 00:29:36.981
(Narrator) So, who is this guy and why's

00:29:36.981 --> 00:29:40.171
he such a bulldog for speed?

00:29:40.171 --> 00:29:43.121
Craig Venter grew up in California,

00:29:43.121 --> 00:29:44.981
left high school and spent a year as a

00:29:44.981 --> 00:29:47.641
surfing bum on the beach by day and

00:29:47.641 --> 00:29:50.821
a stock-boy at Sears by night. He was

00:29:50.821 --> 00:29:53.411
inevitably drafted, went to Vietnam with

00:29:53.411 --> 00:29:55.551
the Navy. That's him way over there on

00:29:55.551 --> 00:29:57.841
the left. He was eventually assigned to a

00:29:57.841 --> 00:29:59.851
Naval Hospital in Denang during the

00:29:59.851 --> 00:30:01.681
Tet Offensive, when the Americans were

00:30:01.681 --> 00:30:03.881
taking very heavy casualties.

00:30:03.881 --> 00:30:06.211
At 21, he was in the triage unit, where

00:30:06.211 --> 00:30:10.221
they decide who will live, and who will
die.

00:30:10.221 --> 00:30:11.451
When you're young and you

00:30:11.451 --> 00:30:13.341
Narrator - see a lot of people die, and

00:30:13.341 --> 00:30:15.481
they could all be you, do feel like you

00:30:15.481 --> 00:30:19.711
sort of owe them cures, cures that they'll

00:30:19.711 --> 00:30:22.521
never get? Or am I over-romanticizing...

00:30:22.521 --> 00:30:24.431
Vinter - Well, the motivation's become

00:30:24.431 --> 00:30:28.471
complex, but that's certainly apart of it.

00:30:28.471 --> 00:30:32.571
Also, I think surviving the year there
was...

00:30:32.571 --> 00:30:36.571
(emotional pause)

00:30:43.677 --> 00:30:46.357
So, it puts things in perspective that

00:30:46.357 --> 00:30:49.177
I think, if you're not in that situation,

00:30:49.177 --> 00:30:53.177
you could never truly have that
perspective.

00:30:53.177 --> 00:30:56.257
Narrator - So, you hear ticking?

00:30:56.257 --> 00:31:00.257
Vinter - Yeah... but also, I feel, that

00:31:00.257 --> 00:31:02.487
I've had this tremendous gift for all

00:31:02.487 --> 00:31:05.427
these years since I got back in 1968, and

00:31:05.427 --> 00:31:07.237
I wanted to make sure I did something

00:31:07.237 --> 00:31:10.067
with it.

00:31:10.768 --> 00:31:12.698
(Narrator) In the spring of 1998, Venter

00:31:12.698 --> 00:31:14.778
announced that he and his company were
gonna

00:31:14.778 --> 00:31:16.928
sequence all three billion letters of the

00:31:16.928 --> 00:31:19.768
human genome in two years.

00:31:19.768 --> 00:31:21.328
Remember, the government said it

00:31:21.328 --> 00:31:23.278
was gonna take 15.

00:31:23.278 --> 00:31:25.278
(Venter) There was a lot of arrogance

00:31:25.278 --> 00:31:27.628
that went with that program

00:31:27.628 --> 00:31:29.528
Vinter - they were gonna do it at their

00:31:29.528 --> 00:31:32.978
pace, and a lot of the scientists, ya
know, if they were really

00:31:32.978 --> 00:31:35.008
being honest with you, would tell you that

00:31:35.008 --> 00:31:37.408
they planned to retire doing this program.

00:31:37.408 --> 00:31:39.718
You know, that's not what we think is the

00:31:39.718 --> 00:31:41.738
right way to do science, especially

00:31:41.738 --> 00:31:44.318
science that affects so many peoples'
lives.

00:31:44.318 --> 00:31:47.498
Robert - Craig's a high-testosterone male.

00:31:47.498 --> 00:31:50.818
Who has, who loves to be an iconoclast,
right?

00:31:50.818 --> 00:31:54.098
He loves rattling peoples' cages. And he's

00:31:54.098 --> 00:31:57.238
done that consistently in the genome
project.

00:31:57.948 --> 00:32:00.018
(Narrator) Craig Venter's announcement

00:32:00.018 --> 00:32:01.478
that his team would finish the

00:32:01.478 --> 00:32:04.998
entire genome in just two years,
galvanized everybody working

00:32:04.998 --> 00:32:08.238
on the public project. Now, they were

00:32:08.238 --> 00:32:10.368
scrambling to keep up.

00:32:10.368 --> 00:32:11.968
Man - There are some limitations,

00:32:11.968 --> 00:32:15.308
we don't think we can this thing to go
any faster at the moment without

00:32:15.308 --> 00:32:18.658
throwing a lot more robotics at it.
The arm physically takes 20 seconds

00:32:18.658 --> 00:32:19.378
to move...

00:32:19.378 --> 00:32:22.628
(Narrator) Francis Collins, the head of
the Human Genome Project, was

00:32:22.628 --> 00:32:26.178
determined that Celera was not gonna
beat his teams to the prize. He made a

00:32:26.178 --> 00:32:30.988
dramatic decision to try to cut five full
years off of the original plan.

00:32:30.988 --> 00:32:33.048
Eric - The okay way to do it...

00:32:33.048 --> 00:32:37.918
(Francis) When the major genome
centers met, and agreed to go for broke

00:32:37.918 --> 00:32:40.688
here, I don't think there was anybody in

00:32:40.688 --> 00:32:42.678
the room that was very confident we could

00:32:42.678 --> 00:32:44.608
do that. I mean, you could sit down with

00:32:44.608 --> 00:32:46.508
a piece of paper, and make projections,

00:32:46.508 --> 00:32:48.528
if everything went really well, that might

00:32:48.528 --> 00:32:51.398
get you there, but there were so many ways

00:32:51.398 --> 00:32:55.398
this could have just run completely
off the track.

00:32:55.398 --> 00:32:57.368
(Narrator) At MIT, they decided to try to

00:32:57.368 --> 00:33:00.458
scale up their effort 15-fold.

00:33:00.458 --> 00:33:02.298
And that meant a major change in their

00:33:02.298 --> 00:33:04.468
usual academic pace.

00:33:04.468 --> 00:33:06.248
(Woman) We basically had a goal since

00:33:06.248 --> 00:33:09.868
Woman - march to get to a plate emitted
operation from womb-to-tomb all the

00:33:09.868 --> 00:33:10.748
way through.

00:33:10.748 --> 00:33:14.428
(Narrator) In the fall of 1999,
representatives from the five

00:33:14.428 --> 00:33:18.058
major labs come to check out Eric
Lander's operation.

00:33:18.058 --> 00:33:21.468
All the big honchos in the Human
Genome Project are here.

00:33:21.468 --> 00:33:23.328
Scientists from Washington University

00:33:23.328 --> 00:33:26.338
in St. Louis, Baylor College of Medicine

00:33:26.338 --> 00:33:29.218
in Texas, the Department of Energy,

00:33:29.218 --> 00:33:32.078
she's from the Sanger Center in England.

00:33:32.078 --> 00:33:34.118
If they want to finish the genome before

00:33:34.118 --> 00:33:36.298
Craig Venter, these folks have to figure

00:33:36.298 --> 00:33:38.478
out how to outfit their labs with a lot of

00:33:38.478 --> 00:33:41.728
new, and fancy, and unfamiliar equipment,

00:33:41.728 --> 00:33:44.718
and they've got to do it fast.

00:33:44.718 --> 00:33:46.608
Woman - So, we'll have to run some kind

00:33:46.608 --> 00:33:47.908
of a conduit...

00:33:47.908 --> 00:33:50.227
(Narrator) At MIT, a different crate is

00:33:50.227 --> 00:33:52.067
arriving almost daily.

00:33:52.067 --> 00:33:54.897
Man - It's like Christmas, everyone 
unwrap something.

00:33:54.897 --> 00:33:56.627
(Narrator) Just like a bad Christmas

00:33:56.627 --> 00:33:59.197
present, assembly is required, and the

00:33:59.197 --> 00:34:04.077
instruction are, of course, not always
clear.

00:34:04.077 --> 00:34:06.497
(Man) Oh no, the magnet-plates stick
to each other?

00:34:06.497 --> 00:34:09.667
Man - This is about, plus or minus three
feet.

00:34:09.667 --> 00:34:10.397
(laughing)

00:34:10.397 --> 00:34:14.057
(Eric Landers) Since one's on the cutting-
edge, I guess that they always call

00:34:14.057 --> 00:34:16.227
Eric - it the "bleeding edge", right?
Nothing,

00:34:16.227 --> 00:34:20.167
really, is working as you would expect.
All the stuff we're doing will be working

00:34:20.167 --> 00:34:22.297
perfectly as soon as we're ready to junk
it.

00:34:22.297 --> 00:34:25.307
(Man) Right, right.
(Narrator) The MIT crew is particularly

00:34:25.307 --> 00:34:27.027
excited about their brand-new,

00:34:27.027 --> 00:34:32.647
$300,000, state-of-the-art, DNA purifying
machine.

00:34:32.647 --> 00:34:37.717
Man - Alright, maiden voyage, it didn't
ask me for a password, that's good.

00:34:39.488 --> 00:34:40.658
On it goes.

00:34:40.658 --> 00:34:42.758
Other man - Got the yellow light right
away.

00:34:42.758 --> 00:34:45.478
(Man) That's okay...
(Narrator) I don't think the blinking

00:34:45.478 --> 00:34:46.598
light is a good sign...

00:34:46.598 --> 00:34:49.528
(Man) Looks like we have an air leak
somewhere.

00:34:49.528 --> 00:34:52.288
Uh oh, look at this.

00:34:52.288 --> 00:34:53.708
(Man) It's cracked.

00:34:53.708 --> 00:34:55.708
(Eric Landers) It's sort of like flying a

00:34:55.708 --> 00:34:57.668
very large plane and repairing it while

00:34:57.668 --> 00:35:00.248
you're flying. And you're trying to figure

00:35:00.248 --> 00:35:03.108
out what went wrong.

00:35:03.108 --> 00:35:06.028
And you also realize that you're spending

00:35:06.028 --> 00:35:08.328
10's of thousands of dollars an hour,

00:35:08.328 --> 00:35:10.138
so you feel under a little pressure

00:35:10.138 --> 00:35:13.418
to sort of work this out as quickly as
you can.

00:35:13.418 --> 00:35:16.248
(Narrator) So, he calls the customer
service line.

00:35:16.248 --> 00:35:17.878
And of course, he's put on hold...

00:35:17.878 --> 00:35:23.608
(music playing)

00:35:24.375 --> 00:35:28.375
So, he waits...

00:35:30.226 --> 00:35:34.226
And he waits...

00:35:35.835 --> 00:35:39.835
And he waits...

00:35:41.394 --> 00:35:44.434
Anyway, it turns out the the $300,000

00:35:44.434 --> 00:35:47.144
machine does have one tiny little valve

00:35:47.144 --> 00:35:51.504
that is broke, and so it doesn't work.

00:35:52.056 --> 00:35:53.706
(Man) Alright...

00:35:53.749 --> 00:35:56.319
(Eric) You never know whether the problem

00:35:56.319 --> 00:36:02.579
is due to some robot, some funky bit of
biochemistry, some

00:36:02.579 --> 00:36:05.349
chemical that you've got that isn't really

00:36:05.349 --> 00:36:10.469
working. And, so, it's incredibly
complicated.

00:36:10.469 --> 00:36:13.819
Woman - So, we have a transformation,
where we transform a tenth of

00:36:13.819 --> 00:36:14.719
our ligation...

00:36:14.719 --> 00:36:16.709
Man - And add SDS to lice the phage.

00:36:16.709 --> 00:36:19.839
Man - And all of our thermo-cyclers are
three to four well plates.

00:36:19.839 --> 00:36:21.819
(Man) So, if you basically determine your

00:36:21.819 --> 00:36:24.419
Man - (inaudible scientific jargon ... and

00:36:24.419 --> 00:36:27.659
give them each a different run module...

00:36:27.659 --> 00:36:31.519
(Francis) Try to ramp something up...
anything that's the slightest bit

00:36:31.519 --> 00:36:34.599
cloogey suddenly becomes a major
bottleneck.

00:36:34.599 --> 00:36:37.049
Man - We talked about doing a full-out

00:36:37.049 --> 00:36:41.299
test today and we weren't quite feeling
good about doing that yet, so...

00:36:41.299 --> 00:36:43.516
(Francis) There was a considerable sense

00:36:43.516 --> 00:36:47.066
of white knuckles, because here we made

00:36:47.066 --> 00:36:49.496
this promise, we were on the record here

00:36:49.496 --> 00:36:51.156
saying we were gonna do this.

00:36:51.156 --> 00:36:53.156
And things weren't working, the machines

00:36:53.156 --> 00:36:56.746
were breaking down.

00:36:56.746 --> 00:36:58.856
Woman - This is like... November?

00:36:58.856 --> 00:37:01.726
Francis - And it's gotta work now. The
time is running out.

00:37:01.726 --> 00:37:05.966
Man - This is one of it's three inaugural 
runs and

00:37:05.966 --> 00:37:08.546
(Man) it seems to be flawless, so far.

00:37:08.546 --> 00:37:11.276
(Narrator) It took awhile, but the
government teams finally hit

00:37:11.276 --> 00:37:14.106
their stride.

00:37:14.368 --> 00:37:16.398
(Francis) But the fall of that year was

00:37:16.398 --> 00:37:19.658
really, sort of, the determining time.

00:37:19.658 --> 00:37:22.238
The Center's really proved their mettle.

00:37:22.238 --> 00:37:24.338
And every one of them began to catch

00:37:24.338 --> 00:37:28.648
this rising curve, and ride it and we
began to see data

00:37:28.648 --> 00:37:32.208
appearing at prodigious rates.

00:37:32.885 --> 00:37:33.925
Man - Do all...

00:37:34.176 --> 00:37:36.576
(Francis) By early 2000's, a thousand

00:37:36.576 --> 00:37:39.226
base pairs-per-second were rolling out of

00:37:39.226 --> 00:37:43.226
this combined enterprise, seven days a
week, 24 hours a day,

00:37:43.226 --> 00:37:45.316
1,000 base pairs a second.

00:37:45.316 --> 00:37:48.756
Then it really starts to go.

00:37:48.756 --> 00:37:51.366
(Narrator) And those thousands of base
pairs poured out of

00:37:51.366 --> 00:37:55.366
university labs directly onto the
internet.

00:37:55.366 --> 00:38:02.646
(music playing)

00:38:03.134 --> 00:38:04.994
(Narrator) Updated every night, it's

00:38:04.994 --> 00:38:07.484
available for anyone, and everybody.

00:38:07.484 --> 00:38:11.484
Including, by the way, the competition.

00:38:11.646 --> 00:38:13.186
Man - Customers love our data...

00:38:13.186 --> 00:38:15.136
(Narrator) Celera admits they got lots of

00:38:15.136 --> 00:38:17.446
data directly from the government.

00:38:17.446 --> 00:38:19.366
And Tony White, who runs the company

00:38:19.366 --> 00:38:21.926
that owns Celera says, "Why not?"

00:38:21.926 --> 00:38:23.776
Tony - That's publicly available data.

00:38:23.776 --> 00:38:25.986
I'm a taxpayer, Celera's a taxpayer.

00:38:25.986 --> 00:38:28.696
Ya know, why should we be excluded from

00:38:28.696 --> 00:38:31.746
getting it? I mean, again, are they
creating it

00:38:31.746 --> 00:38:35.186
to give to all mankind except Celera?

00:38:35.186 --> 00:38:38.076
Is that the idea, it isn't about us

00:38:38.076 --> 00:38:40.986
getting the data, it's about this
academic jealousy.

00:38:40.986 --> 00:38:43.396
It's about the fact that our data, in

00:38:43.396 --> 00:38:45.656
combination with theirs, give us a

00:38:45.656 --> 00:38:48.426
perceived unfair advantage over this

00:38:48.426 --> 00:38:49.896
so-called race.

00:38:49.896 --> 00:38:53.796
Eric - If they wanna race us, that's
their business.

00:38:53.796 --> 00:38:55.226
I suppose they may.

00:38:55.226 --> 00:38:57.276
(Narrator) I suspect strongly that they
may.

00:38:57.276 --> 00:39:02.896
Eric - Our job to get that data so that
everybody can go use it.

00:39:02.896 --> 00:39:04.916
(Narrator) Since Celera was sequencing the

00:39:04.916 --> 00:39:07.046
genome with private money, some critics

00:39:07.046 --> 00:39:09.146
wondered why should the government put

00:39:09.146 --> 00:39:14.236
so much cash into the exact same research?

00:39:14.769 --> 00:39:18.199
(Eric) In the United States, we invested
in a National Highway system

00:39:18.199 --> 00:39:21.619
in the 1950's. We got tremendous return

00:39:21.619 --> 00:39:24.549
from building roads for free, and letting

00:39:24.549 --> 00:39:26.319
everybody drive up and down them for

00:39:26.319 --> 00:39:28.429
whatever purpose they wanted. We're

00:39:28.429 --> 00:39:31.469
building a road up and down the
chromosomes... for free.

00:39:31.469 --> 00:39:33.319
People can drive up and down those

00:39:33.319 --> 00:39:35.179
chromosomes from whatever they need

00:39:35.179 --> 00:39:37.179
to. They can make discoveries, they can

00:39:37.179 --> 00:39:38.929
learn about medicine, they can learn

00:39:38.929 --> 00:39:40.729
about history, whatever they want.

00:39:40.729 --> 00:39:43.079
It is worth the public investment to

00:39:43.079 --> 00:39:45.059
make those roads available.

00:39:45.059 --> 00:39:46.929
(Narrator) Wait a second, what I really

00:39:46.929 --> 00:39:49.429
want to know is if you're making a roadmap

00:39:49.429 --> 00:39:52.549
of a human being, which human beings are

00:39:52.549 --> 00:39:55.869
we mapping? I mean humans come in so many

00:39:55.869 --> 00:39:59.019
varieties, so whose genes, exactly, are

00:39:59.019 --> 00:40:00.609
we looking at?

00:40:00.609 --> 00:40:03.499
Eric - Yeah, it's mostly a guy from
Buffalo and a woman from

00:40:03.499 --> 00:40:05.439
Buffalo. That's because the laboratory--

00:40:05.439 --> 00:40:08.089
Narrator - Whoa, whoa, wait... An 
anonymous couple from

00:40:08.089 --> 00:40:08.819
Buffalo?

00:40:08.819 --> 00:40:10.729
Eric - No, they're not a couple. They've

00:40:10.729 --> 00:40:12.229
never met. The laboratory was a

00:40:12.229 --> 00:40:14.199
laboratory in Buffalo. So, they put an ad

00:40:14.199 --> 00:40:16.069
in the Buffalo newspapers, and they got

00:40:16.069 --> 00:40:17.769
random volunteers from Buffalo.

00:40:17.769 --> 00:40:20.399
They got about 20 of them, and chose

00:40:20.399 --> 00:40:22.509
at random the sample, and that sample,

00:40:22.509 --> 00:40:25.089
and that sample, so nobody knows who

00:40:25.089 --> 00:40:26.299
they are.

00:40:26.663 --> 00:40:28.243
(Narrator) And what about Celera?

00:40:28.243 --> 00:40:30.723
Whose DNA are they mapping?

00:40:30.723 --> 00:40:32.793
They also got a bunch of volunteers,

00:40:32.793 --> 00:40:36.793
around 20, and picked five lucky winners

00:40:36.793 --> 00:40:38.713
Craig - We tried to have some diversity,

00:40:38.713 --> 00:40:41.463
in terms of, if we had an African American

00:40:41.463 --> 00:40:43.523
or somebody's self-proclaimed Chinese

00:40:43.523 --> 00:40:47.523
history, two Caucasians, and a Hispanic.

00:40:47.523 --> 00:40:49.953
So, some of the volunteers were here

00:40:49.953 --> 00:40:50.823
on the staff...

00:40:50.823 --> 00:40:52.783
Narrator - I have to ask, cause everybody

00:40:52.783 --> 00:40:54.023
does, are you one of them?

00:40:54.023 --> 00:40:56.883
Craig - I am one of the volunteers, yes.

00:40:56.883 --> 00:40:59.213
Narrator - Do you know whether or 
not you're one

00:40:59.213 --> 00:40:59.953
of the winners?

00:40:59.953 --> 00:41:03.803
I have a pretty good idea, yes, but I

00:41:03.803 --> 00:41:07.493
can't disclose that, because it doesn't

00:41:07.493 --> 00:41:08.323
matter.

00:41:08.323 --> 00:41:10.143
Narrator - Well, if you're the head of

00:41:10.143 --> 00:41:13.493
the company and you're watching the
decoding of muah. That has a little

00:41:13.493 --> 00:41:14.683
Miss Piggy quality to it.

00:41:14.683 --> 00:41:16.573
Craig - Well, any scientist that I know

00:41:16.573 --> 00:41:18.353
would love to be looking at their own

00:41:18.353 --> 00:41:20.243
genetic code. I mean, how could you not

00:41:20.243 --> 00:41:21.943
want to in this field?

00:41:21.943 --> 00:41:23.763
(Narrator) Well, I don't know, I don't

00:41:23.763 --> 00:41:27.553
work in this field. But I do wonder, can

00:41:27.553 --> 00:41:30.123
any small group, and could that guy

00:41:30.123 --> 00:41:33.393
from Buffalo, could he really be a
stand-in

00:41:33.393 --> 00:41:37.023
for all humankind?

00:41:37.583 --> 00:41:39.463
Hasn't it been drummed into us since

00:41:39.463 --> 00:41:42.233
birth that we're all... different? Each

00:41:42.233 --> 00:41:46.233
and every one of us, completely unique.

00:41:47.700 --> 00:41:51.180
We certainly look different.

00:41:51.180 --> 00:41:53.480
People come in so many shapes, and

00:41:53.480 --> 00:41:59.120
colors, and sizes... The DNA of these

00:41:59.120 --> 00:42:01.570
humans has got to be significantly

00:42:01.570 --> 00:42:05.770
different than the DNA of this human.
Right?

00:42:06.573 --> 00:42:08.583
Eric - The genetic difference between any

00:42:08.583 --> 00:42:11.643
two people is 1/10th of a percent.

00:42:11.643 --> 00:42:14.333
Those two, and any people on this planet,

00:42:14.333 --> 00:42:18.333
are 99.9% identical at the DNA level.

00:42:18.566 --> 00:42:20.736
It's only one letter in a thousand
difference.

00:42:21.900 --> 00:42:24.840
Narrator - And if I were to bring,

00:42:24.840 --> 00:42:28.650
secretly into another room, a black man,

00:42:28.650 --> 00:42:31.960
an Asian man, and a white man, and

00:42:31.960 --> 00:42:35.080
show you only their genetic code,

00:42:35.080 --> 00:42:37.100
could you tell which one was the white
one?

00:42:37.100 --> 00:42:38.200
Eric - I could not.

00:42:38.200 --> 00:42:40.470
What's going on? Well, it tells us that,

00:42:40.470 --> 00:42:45.030
first, as a species, we are very very

00:42:45.030 --> 00:42:47.020
closely related. Cause any two human

00:42:47.020 --> 00:42:49.360
beings being 99.9% identical, means that

00:42:49.360 --> 00:42:51.140
we are much more closely related than

00:42:51.140 --> 00:42:53.070
any two chimpanzees in Africa.

00:42:53.070 --> 00:42:55.100
(Narrator) Wait, wait, you mean if two

00:42:55.100 --> 00:42:56.880
chimpanzees are swinging through the

00:42:56.880 --> 00:42:58.710
forest, and you look at the genes of

00:42:58.710 --> 00:43:00.350
chimp A, and you look at the genes

00:43:00.350 --> 00:43:01.090
of chimp B...

00:43:01.090 --> 00:43:02.970
Eric - Average difference between those

00:43:02.970 --> 00:43:05.240
chimps, is 4 - 5 times more than the

00:43:05.240 --> 00:43:07.540
average between two humans that you

00:43:07.540 --> 00:43:08.990
could pluck off this planet.

00:43:08.990 --> 00:43:11.160
(Narrator) Because we're such a young
species?

00:43:11.160 --> 00:43:12.430
(Eric) That's right.

00:43:12.430 --> 00:43:15.300
See, the thing is, we are the descendants

00:43:15.300 --> 00:43:19.660
of a very small founding population.

00:43:20.509 --> 00:43:22.519
Every human on this planet goes back

00:43:22.519 --> 00:43:24.899
to a founding population of, perhaps,

00:43:24.899 --> 00:43:27.519
10 or 20 thousand people in Africa.

00:43:27.519 --> 00:43:31.429
About 100,000 years ago.

00:43:31.429 --> 00:43:33.659
That little population didn't have a great

00:43:33.659 --> 00:43:36.399
deal of genetic variation, and what

00:43:36.399 --> 00:43:39.079
happened was, it was successful; it

00:43:39.079 --> 00:43:41.409
multiplied all over the world, but in that

00:43:41.409 --> 00:43:44.099
time, relatively little new genetic

00:43:44.099 --> 00:43:47.019
variation is built up. So, we have today

00:43:47.019 --> 00:43:49.369
on our planet, about the same genetic

00:43:49.369 --> 00:43:51.369
variation that we walked out of Africa

00:43:51.369 --> 00:43:52.579
with.

00:43:56.861 --> 00:43:58.841
(Narrator) So, people are incredibly

00:43:58.841 --> 00:44:01.541
similar to each other. But not only that,

00:44:01.541 --> 00:44:03.791
it turns out that we also share many

00:44:03.791 --> 00:44:06.951
genes with, well, everything.

00:44:07.374 --> 00:44:10.754
50% of the genes of a banana are different
from us?

00:44:10.754 --> 00:44:12.814
Eric - How different are you from a
banana?

00:44:12.814 --> 00:44:14.824
Narrator - I feel, and I feel like can say

00:44:14.824 --> 00:44:16.754
this with some authority, very different

00:44:16.754 --> 00:44:17.494
from a banana.

00:44:17.494 --> 00:44:20.784
Eric - You may feel different from -
Narrator - I eat a banana but I-

00:44:20.784 --> 00:44:22.664
Eric - Look, you've got cells, you've

00:44:22.664 --> 00:44:25.164
gotta make those cells divide. So, all

00:44:25.164 --> 00:44:27.504
the machinery for replicating your DNA,

00:44:27.504 --> 00:44:29.864
all the machinery for controlling the

00:44:29.864 --> 00:44:33.064
cell-cycle, the cell's surface, for making

00:44:33.064 --> 00:44:35.824
nutrients, all that's the same in you and

00:44:35.824 --> 00:44:39.824
a banana.

00:44:40.706 --> 00:44:43.866
(Eric) Deep down, the fundamental
mechanisms of

00:44:43.866 --> 00:44:47.866
life were worked out only once on this
planet.

00:44:52.364 --> 00:44:56.364
And they've gotten reused in every 
organism.

00:44:57.865 --> 00:44:59.755
The closer and closer you get to a

00:44:59.755 --> 00:45:02.535
cell, the more you see a bag with

00:45:02.535 --> 00:45:04.635
stuff in it and a nucleus and most of

00:45:04.635 --> 00:45:08.165
those basic functions are the same.

00:45:10.630 --> 00:45:12.960
Evolution doesn't go reinvent something

00:45:12.960 --> 00:45:14.620
when it doesn't have to.

00:45:14.620 --> 00:45:21.050
(music playing)

00:45:23.592 --> 00:45:27.892
Take baker's yeast, baker's yeast, we're

00:45:27.892 --> 00:45:30.112
related to one-and-a-half billion years

00:45:30.112 --> 00:45:32.202
ago. But even even after one-and-a-half

00:45:32.202 --> 00:45:34.332
billion years of evolutionary separation,

00:45:34.332 --> 00:45:36.342
the parts are still interchangeable for

00:45:36.342 --> 00:45:37.682
lots of these genes.

00:45:37.682 --> 00:45:40.182
Narrator - Now, does that mean,
I want to understand,

00:45:40.182 --> 00:45:41.952
does that mean when you look through

00:45:41.952 --> 00:45:43.942
those things, that all the C's, A's, T's,

00:45:43.942 --> 00:45:46.202
T's, and the G's, are you seeing the same

00:45:46.202 --> 00:45:47.952
exact same letter sequences in the

00:45:47.952 --> 00:45:50.162
exact same alignment? When you look at

00:45:50.162 --> 00:45:52.092
the yeast and you look at the person, is

00:45:52.092 --> 00:45:52.822
it the same?

00:45:52.822 --> 00:45:54.692
Eric - Sometimes it's eerie. The gene

00:45:54.692 --> 00:45:57.152
sequence is nearly identical. There are

00:45:57.152 --> 00:46:01.152
some genes, like Ubiquitin, that's 97%

00:46:01.152 --> 00:46:03.572
identical between humans and yeast,

00:46:03.572 --> 00:46:05.712
even after a billion years of evolution.

00:46:05.712 --> 00:46:08.382
Narrator - Well, with a name like that,|
it's gotta be...

00:46:08.382 --> 00:46:09.932
Eric - Well, yeah, but you gotta

00:46:09.932 --> 00:46:11.692
understand that deep down we are very

00:46:11.692 --> 00:46:14.092
much partaking of that same bag of tricks

00:46:14.092 --> 00:46:15.902
that evolution's been using to make

00:46:15.902 --> 00:46:18.922
organisms all over this planet.

00:46:21.321 --> 00:46:23.261
(Narrator) It seems incredible, but all

00:46:23.261 --> 00:46:25.531
this information about evolution, about

00:46:25.531 --> 00:46:27.661
our relationship to each other, and to all

00:46:27.661 --> 00:46:30.601
living things, it's all right here in this

00:46:30.601 --> 00:46:36.081
monotonous stream of letters. And as the

00:46:36.081 --> 00:46:38.281
Human Genome Project progressed, and

00:46:38.281 --> 00:46:40.681
hit high gear, the pace of discovery

00:46:40.681 --> 00:46:42.721
quickened.

00:46:43.590 --> 00:46:45.770
Once, they got fully automated, it wasn't

00:46:45.770 --> 00:46:48.210
long until Lander, and Collins, and all

00:46:48.210 --> 00:46:50.550
the other public project teams had reason

00:46:50.550 --> 00:46:53.200
to celebrate.

00:46:56.237 --> 00:46:57.877
Francis - I'm Francis Collins, the

00:46:57.877 --> 00:46:59.647
Director of the National Human Genome

00:46:59.647 --> 00:47:01.687
Research Institute, and we are happy to be

00:47:01.687 --> 00:47:04.837
here together to have a party today.

00:47:04.837 --> 00:47:07.157
(Narrator) By November of 1999, they had

00:47:07.157 --> 00:47:11.157
reached a major milestone. In a five-way

00:47:11.157 --> 00:47:13.157
award ceremony, hooked up by

00:47:13.157 --> 00:47:15.607
satellite, the major university teams

00:47:15.607 --> 00:47:17.467
announced they had finished a billion

00:47:17.467 --> 00:47:20.337
base pairs of DNA. A third of the total

00:47:20.337 --> 00:47:22.477
genome.

00:47:22.939 --> 00:47:26.939
(corks popping)

00:47:28.867 --> 00:47:32.867
(Eric) Have we got everybody?

00:47:33.961 --> 00:47:37.041
Eric Lander - I would like to propose

00:47:37.041 --> 00:47:43.521
a toast. A billion base pairs, all on the

00:47:43.521 --> 00:47:45.951
public internet, available to anybody in

00:47:45.951 --> 00:47:49.431
the world. It's an incredible achievement.

00:47:49.431 --> 00:47:53.071
It hasn't been completely painless.
(laughing)

00:47:53.071 --> 00:47:54.901
And, because, I know everybody in this

00:47:54.901 --> 00:47:58.901
room is living and breathing and thinking

00:47:58.901 --> 00:48:01.431
every single moment of the day about how

00:48:01.431 --> 00:48:03.831
to make all this happen... how we can hit

00:48:03.831 --> 00:48:06.591
full-scale. I want to be sure you realize

00:48:06.591 --> 00:48:09.151
what a remarkable thing we pulled off.

00:48:09.151 --> 00:48:13.711
I hope you also know that this is history.

00:48:15.491 --> 00:48:18.912
Whatever else you do in your lives, you're

00:48:18.912 --> 00:48:22.222
apart of history. We're apart of an

00:48:22.222 --> 00:48:24.472
amazing effort on the part of the world to

00:48:24.472 --> 00:48:26.352
produce. And it isn't gonna be like the

00:48:26.352 --> 00:48:28.472
moon, where we just visit occasionally.

00:48:28.472 --> 00:48:30.232
This is gonna be something that every

00:48:30.232 --> 00:48:33.912
student, every doctor uses, everyday in

00:48:33.912 --> 00:48:35.792
the next century, and the century after

00:48:35.792 --> 00:48:39.792
that. It's something to tell your kids

00:48:39.792 --> 00:48:41.512
about. Something to tell your

00:48:41.512 --> 00:48:43.622
grand-kids about. It's something you

00:48:43.622 --> 00:48:46.182
should all be tremendously proud of.

00:48:46.182 --> 00:48:48.722
I'm tremendously proud of you.

00:48:48.722 --> 00:48:51.883
A toast, to this remarkable group.

00:48:51.883 --> 00:48:54.943
To the work we've done. To the work ahead.

00:48:54.943 --> 00:48:56.112
Hear, hear.

00:48:56.112 --> 00:48:57.272
Everyone - Hear, hear.

00:48:57.272 --> 00:48:59.032
(Whistling)

00:48:59.032 --> 00:49:00.952
(Narrator) Everybody here is hoping the

00:49:00.952 --> 00:49:03.982
genome project will help cure disease.

00:49:03.982 --> 00:49:05.952
And the sooner it's done, the better for

00:49:05.952 --> 00:49:06.882
all of us.

00:49:06.882 --> 00:49:09.560
(inaudible)

00:49:09.560 --> 00:49:11.580
(Narrator) But there's something more than

00:49:11.580 --> 00:49:14.360
idealism, more than even pride that's

00:49:14.360 --> 00:49:18.360
driving this race to finish the genome.

00:49:18.360 --> 00:49:20.280
And that's the knowledge that with every

00:49:20.280 --> 00:49:22.680
day that passes, more and more pieces

00:49:22.680 --> 00:49:24.620
of our genome are being turned into

00:49:24.620 --> 00:49:30.100
private property by way of the U.S. Patent
Office.

00:49:32.456 --> 00:49:34.026
(printing machine noises)

00:49:34.026 --> 00:49:37.746
Woman - I said property.

00:49:37.746 --> 00:49:39.736
(Narrrator) The office is inundated with

00:49:39.736 --> 00:49:42.196
requests for patents for every imaginable

00:49:42.196 --> 00:49:45.016
invention. From Star Wars action figures

00:49:45.016 --> 00:49:48.736
to jet engines.

00:49:48.736 --> 00:49:51.706
(paper shuffling sounds)

00:49:51.706 --> 00:49:54.526
And here, along with all those gizmos, are

00:49:54.526 --> 00:49:58.866
requests for patents for human genes.

00:49:58.866 --> 00:50:00.986
Things that exist naturally in every one

00:50:00.986 --> 00:50:04.986
of us. How is this possible?

00:50:06.099 --> 00:50:09.339
(Todd) We regard genes as a patent-able

00:50:09.339 --> 00:50:11.499
subject matter, as we regard almost any

00:50:11.499 --> 00:50:15.139
chemical. We have issued patents on a

00:50:15.139 --> 00:50:17.899
number of compounds and compositions

00:50:17.899 --> 00:50:19.539
that are found in the human body.

00:50:19.539 --> 00:50:24.639
For example, the gene that encodes insulin

00:50:24.639 --> 00:50:27.319
has been patented, and that now has been

00:50:27.319 --> 00:50:29.219
used to make almost all of the insulin

00:50:29.219 --> 00:50:31.219
that is made. So, people's lives are being

00:50:31.219 --> 00:50:33.179
saved today. Diabetics' lives are better.

00:50:33.179 --> 00:50:37.139
As a matter of fact, if we ruled out every
chemical that's found in the human body

00:50:37.139 --> 00:50:41.139
there'd be an awful lot of inventions that
would not be able to be protected.

00:50:41.139 --> 00:50:42.889
(Narrator) Generally, to patent an

00:50:42.889 --> 00:50:44.749
invention you've got to prove that it's

00:50:44.749 --> 00:50:47.349
new and useful. But a few years ago

00:50:47.349 --> 00:50:49.079
critics said that the patent office

00:50:49.079 --> 00:50:50.989
wasn't being tough enough, so applicants

00:50:50.989 --> 00:50:52.729
would say, "Well, here's a brand new

00:50:52.729 --> 00:50:54.639
sequence of A's, C's, T's, and G's right

00:50:54.639 --> 00:50:57.069
out of our machine's. That's new."

00:50:57.069 --> 00:50:59.149
Now, "useful", wonder what they're gonna

00:50:59.149 --> 00:51:01.249
be used for? Well, they were kind of vague

00:51:01.249 --> 00:51:03.919
about use, says Eric Lander.

00:51:03.919 --> 00:51:05.879
Eric - The sort of thing that people used

00:51:05.879 --> 00:51:07.919
to do then was they would say that, "It

00:51:07.919 --> 00:51:11.919
could be used as a probe to detect
itself."

00:51:11.919 --> 00:51:13.689
It's a trivial use. I mean it's like

00:51:13.689 --> 00:51:16.919
saying, "I could use this new protein as

00:51:16.919 --> 00:51:19.579
packing peanuts to stuff in a box."

00:51:19.579 --> 00:51:22.179
I mean, it's true-
Narrator - Well, wouldn't the patent

00:51:22.179 --> 00:51:26.079
examiner say, "Well, that's not useful."
Eric - No, no, no, you see, you the patent

00:51:26.079 --> 00:51:29.819
guidelines are very unclear. I don't
object to giving someone that limited time

00:51:29.819 --> 00:51:33.339
of monopoly when they've really invented
a cure for a disease; some really

00:51:33.339 --> 00:51:35.979
important therapy.
I do object to giving a monopoly when

00:51:35.979 --> 00:51:37.819
somebody has simply described a couple

00:51:37.819 --> 00:51:39.889
hundred letters of a gene, but has no idea

00:51:39.889 --> 00:51:41.699
what use it could have in medicine...

00:51:41.699 --> 00:51:45.459
cause what's happen is you've given away
that precious monopoly to someone who's

00:51:45.459 --> 00:51:49.149
done just a little bit of work, and then
the people who come along and want to

00:51:49.149 --> 00:51:52.749
do a lot of work to turn it into a
therapy, well... they've gotta go pay the

00:51:52.749 --> 00:51:56.749
person who already owns it. I think it's
a bad deal for society.

00:51:58.766 --> 00:52:00.946
(Narrator) It takes at least two years for

00:52:00.946 --> 00:52:03.316
the patent office to process a single

00:52:03.316 --> 00:52:05.576
application. So, right now, the patent

00:52:05.576 --> 00:52:08.876
office says there are about 20,000 genetic

00:52:08.876 --> 00:52:11.596
patents waiting for approval. All of them

00:52:11.596 --> 00:52:14.536
are in limbo. This can cause problems for

00:52:14.536 --> 00:52:16.466
drug companies who are trying to work

00:52:16.466 --> 00:52:20.466
with genes to cure disease.

00:52:20.466 --> 00:52:22.266
Narrator - I'm a company trying to do

00:52:22.266 --> 00:52:24.186
work on this, this, and this rung of the

00:52:24.186 --> 00:52:25.096
ladder.
Eric - Right

00:52:25.096 --> 00:52:27.046
Narrator - Cause I think that I can maybe

00:52:27.046 --> 00:52:29.486
develop a cure for cancer, 
right here, for the sake

00:52:29.486 --> 00:52:31.266
of arguing. But, of course, I have to

00:52:31.266 --> 00:52:33.026
worry that somebody owns this space.

00:52:33.026 --> 00:52:34.986
Eric - Oh, you have to worry a lot, that

00:52:34.986 --> 00:52:38.756
this region here that you're working on
that might cure cancer, has already been

00:52:38.756 --> 00:52:43.176
patented by somebody else. And that
patent filing is not public, and so you're

00:52:43.176 --> 00:52:45.336
living with the shadow that all of your

00:52:45.336 --> 00:52:47.056
work may go for naught.

00:52:47.056 --> 00:52:48.786
Narrator - Because one day the phone

00:52:48.786 --> 00:52:51.936
rings and says, "Sorry, you can't work
here. Get off my territory."

00:52:51.936 --> 00:52:54.886
Eric - That's right.
Narrator - Or, you can work here, but I'm

00:52:54.913 --> 00:52:58.443
gonna charge you $100,000 a week.
Or, you can work here and I'll charge you

00:52:58.443 --> 00:53:00.783
a nickel, but I want 50% of whatever you
discover.

00:53:00.783 --> 00:53:04.743
Eric - And the problem there is, it's even
worse, because many companies don't start

00:53:04.743 --> 00:53:07.103
the work whenever there's a cloud over

00:53:07.103 --> 00:53:09.703
who owns that. If there's uncertainty,

00:53:09.703 --> 00:53:11.393
companies would rather be working

00:53:11.393 --> 00:53:13.553
some place where they don't have 
uncertainty.

00:53:13.553 --> 00:53:15.573
And, therefore, I think, work doesn't get

00:53:15.573 --> 00:53:17.483
done, because of the confusion over who

00:53:17.483 --> 00:53:18.293
owns stuff.

00:53:19.668 --> 00:53:21.708
(Narrator) Supporters of patents say they

00:53:21.708 --> 00:53:25.848
are a crucial incentive for drug 
companies.

00:53:26.514 --> 00:53:29.374
Drug research is phenomenally expensive

00:53:29.374 --> 00:53:31.404
but if a company can monopolize a big

00:53:31.404 --> 00:53:33.344
discovery with a patent, it can make

00:53:33.344 --> 00:53:37.344
hundreds of millions of dollars.

00:53:38.733 --> 00:53:40.823
Research scientists suddenly find

00:53:40.823 --> 00:53:43.183
themselves in an unfamiliar world, ruled

00:53:43.183 --> 00:53:46.643
by big money.

00:53:46.643 --> 00:53:48.883
(Sheldon) Every scientist that does
is research

00:53:48.883 --> 00:53:52.363
now being looked upon as a generator of

00:53:52.363 --> 00:53:54.983
wealth. Even if that person is not

00:53:54.983 --> 00:53:57.753
interested in it. If they sequence some

00:53:57.753 --> 00:54:01.273
DNA, that could be patent-able material.

00:54:01.273 --> 00:54:05.153
So, whether the scientist likes it or not,

00:54:05.153 --> 00:54:07.313
he or she becomes an entrepreneur just

00:54:07.313 --> 00:54:11.313
by virtue of doing science.

00:54:12.160 --> 00:54:14.310
(Narrator) Craig Venter is first a
scientist

00:54:14.310 --> 00:54:16.620
but he has made the leap from academia

00:54:16.620 --> 00:54:19.540
into the business world.

00:54:19.540 --> 00:54:21.520
Narrator - Let me talk about the business

00:54:21.520 --> 00:54:23.290
of this. Do you consider yourself a

00:54:23.290 --> 00:54:24.250
business man?

00:54:24.250 --> 00:54:26.330
Craig - No, in fact, I still, sort of

00:54:26.330 --> 00:54:28.440
bristle at the term for some reason.

00:54:28.440 --> 00:54:31.080
But my philosophy is, we would not get
medical

00:54:31.080 --> 00:54:34.070
breakthroughs in this country, at all, if

00:54:34.070 --> 00:54:36.510
it wasn't done in a business setting.

00:54:36.510 --> 00:54:38.530
We would not have new therapies if we

00:54:38.530 --> 00:54:40.950
didn't have a biotech and pharmaceutical

00:54:40.950 --> 00:54:42.490
industry.

00:54:42.490 --> 00:54:44.520
Narrator - But are they... if you bristle

00:54:44.520 --> 00:54:46.440
at the word "businessman", that might be

00:54:46.440 --> 00:54:48.540
because in some part of your soul, you may

00:54:48.540 --> 00:54:51.170
think that the business of science and the

00:54:51.170 --> 00:54:53.290
business of business are fundamentally

00:54:53.290 --> 00:54:55.380
incompatible for one simple reason:

00:54:55.380 --> 00:54:58.210
that the business has to sell something

00:54:58.210 --> 00:55:00.920
and the science has to learn, or teach,

00:55:00.920 --> 00:55:01.800
something.

00:55:01.800 --> 00:55:03.680
Craig - I think I bristle at it because

00:55:03.680 --> 00:55:05.580
it's used as an attack. It's used as a

00:55:05.580 --> 00:55:09.580
criticism. In this case, if the science is

00:55:09.580 --> 00:55:13.580
not spectacular, if the medicine is not

00:55:13.580 --> 00:55:17.580
spectacular, there will be no profits.

00:55:18.293 --> 00:55:21.383
(Narrator) Venter was given $300,000,000

00:55:21.383 --> 00:55:23.803
to set up Celera, and his investors are

00:55:23.803 --> 00:55:26.971
expecting something in return.

00:55:26.971 --> 00:55:30.391
But how can they profit from the genome?

00:55:30.391 --> 00:55:32.551
At the moment, the company is banking on

00:55:32.551 --> 00:55:36.551
pure computer power.

00:55:39.096 --> 00:55:42.526
This is Celera's master control.

00:55:42.526 --> 00:55:45.126
24 hours a day, technicians monitor all

00:55:45.126 --> 00:55:47.756
the company's major operations, including

00:55:47.756 --> 00:55:49.496
the hundreds of sequencers that are

00:55:49.496 --> 00:55:53.496
constantly decoding our genes.

00:55:54.642 --> 00:55:56.922
And they oversee Celera's main source of

00:55:56.922 --> 00:56:00.682
income: a massive website, where, for a

00:56:00.682 --> 00:56:03.012
fee, you can explore several genomes,

00:56:03.012 --> 00:56:05.652
including those of fruit flies, mice, and,

00:56:05.652 --> 00:56:08.812
of course, humans. What all this

00:56:08.812 --> 00:56:10.532
adds up to is something like a big

00:56:10.532 --> 00:56:12.832
browser. A user-friendly interface between

00:56:12.832 --> 00:56:15.902
you and your genes.

00:56:15.902 --> 00:56:18.512
Tony White - Our business is to sell

00:56:18.512 --> 00:56:20.672
products that enable research. That's

00:56:20.672 --> 00:56:24.352
essentially what we do. So, we're used to

00:56:24.352 --> 00:56:26.352
selling the picks and the shovels to the

00:56:26.352 --> 00:56:29.912
miners. Tools to interpret the human

00:56:29.912 --> 00:56:32.492
genome and other related species.

00:56:32.492 --> 00:56:34.942
Or, merely more products along the

00:56:34.942 --> 00:56:37.502
same genre, they just happen to be less

00:56:37.502 --> 00:56:40.872
tangible than a machine.

00:56:40.872 --> 00:56:42.792
(Narrator) So, Celera's business plan is

00:56:42.792 --> 00:56:44.652
to gather information from all kinds of

00:56:44.652 --> 00:56:46.682
creatures, put it together, and sell their

00:56:46.682 --> 00:56:48.122
findings to drug companies, or

00:56:48.122 --> 00:56:51.362
universities, or whomever. But it's the

00:56:51.362 --> 00:56:53.682
selling part, selling scientific

00:56:53.682 --> 00:56:55.962
information, that makes some scientists

00:56:55.962 --> 00:56:58.162
very uncomfortable.

00:56:58.162 --> 00:57:00.142
Todd - This is a big change in the ethos

00:57:00.142 --> 00:57:02.702
of the scientific community, which is,

00:57:02.702 --> 00:57:06.532
supposedly, it was built upon the idea of

00:57:06.532 --> 00:57:10.332
community values of the free and open

00:57:10.332 --> 00:57:13.192
exchange of information. The fundamental

00:57:13.192 --> 00:57:15.702
idea that when you learn something, you

00:57:15.702 --> 00:57:18.162
publish it immediately, you share it with

00:57:18.162 --> 00:57:21.792
others. Science grows by this community

00:57:21.792 --> 00:57:24.232
interest of shared knowledge.

00:57:24.232 --> 00:57:26.492
Tony - I think, why doesn't Pfeiffer give

00:57:26.492 --> 00:57:28.412
away their drugs? They could help a lot

00:57:28.412 --> 00:57:30.412
more people if they didn't charge for
them.

00:57:30.412 --> 00:57:33.392
Man - At what point is "free" really free?

00:57:33.392 --> 00:57:35.332
(Narrator) Tony White has absolutely no

00:57:35.332 --> 00:57:38.072
problem with making money from the human
genome.

00:57:38.072 --> 00:57:40.072
Tony - I hope we have a legal monopoly on

00:57:40.072 --> 00:57:42.022
the information. I hope the product is so

00:57:42.022 --> 00:57:44.902
good, and so valuable to people, that they

00:57:44.902 --> 00:57:46.932
feel that it's necessary to come through

00:57:46.932 --> 00:57:49.642
us to get it.

00:57:49.642 --> 00:57:51.532
Anybody who wants to can build all the

00:57:51.532 --> 00:57:54.532
tools that we're gonna build. Whether or

00:57:54.532 --> 00:57:56.352
not they will choose to is a different

00:57:56.352 --> 00:57:58.402
matter.

00:57:58.402 --> 00:58:01.982
Narrator - Which is the better business
to be in, do you think? The landlord

00:58:01.982 --> 00:58:05.462
business? Or this, "You subscribe and
I'll give you some information about

00:58:05.462 --> 00:58:06.822
anything you want business."

00:58:06.822 --> 00:58:09.862
Eric - They're both lousy businesses.
(Narrator laughing) Lousy?

00:58:09.862 --> 00:58:11.442
Eric- They're lousy businesses by

00:58:11.442 --> 00:58:13.612
comparison with the real business:
Make drugs.

00:58:13.612 --> 00:58:16.612
Actually make molecules that cure people.

00:58:16.612 --> 00:58:18.382
Narrator - curing people is the whole

00:58:18.382 --> 00:58:20.302
point, right? But if there is one thing

00:58:20.302 --> 00:58:21.902
that the Human Genome Project has

00:58:21.902 --> 00:58:25.222
taught us, is that finding cures is a

00:58:25.222 --> 00:58:27.102
whole lot harder than simply reading

00:58:27.102 --> 00:58:29.522
letters of DNA.

00:58:29.522 --> 00:58:31.442
(Narrator) Take for example, the case of

00:58:31.442 --> 00:58:35.442
little Riley Demoush.

00:58:35.668 --> 00:58:39.668
(baby sounds)

00:58:40.561 --> 00:58:42.621
At two months, Riley appears to be

00:58:42.621 --> 00:58:47.071
a perfectly healthy baby boy, but he's
not.

00:58:48.455 --> 00:58:51.135
When Riley was just 13 days old, Kathy

00:58:51.135 --> 00:58:55.135
got the call that every parent dreads.

00:58:56.695 --> 00:58:59.295
Kathy - The pediatrician called on a

00:58:59.295 --> 00:59:03.925
Thursday evening, and he said, "I need

00:59:03.925 --> 00:59:05.775
to talk to you about the baby."

00:59:05.775 --> 00:59:08.855
He said, "Are you sitting down?"

00:59:08.855 --> 00:59:12.685
I'm like, "Yeah." And that really suprised

00:59:12.685 --> 00:59:15.005
me. And he said, "Are you holding the

00:59:15.005 --> 00:59:16.945
baby." Because he didn't want me to drop

00:59:16.945 --> 00:59:18.165
the baby, obviously.

00:59:18.165 --> 00:59:20.885
And he said, "The tests came through, and

00:59:20.885 --> 00:59:24.535
Riley tested positive to cystic fibrosis."

00:59:24.535 --> 00:59:28.305
And I was in shock.

00:59:28.305 --> 00:59:29.985
(Narrator) As Kathy and her husband

00:59:29.985 --> 00:59:32.505
would soon learn, Cystic Fibrosis, "CF"

00:59:32.505 --> 00:59:34.675
for short, attacks several organs of the

00:59:34.675 --> 00:59:38.355
body, but especially the lungs.

00:59:38.355 --> 00:59:40.015
It's victims suffer from chronic

00:59:40.015 --> 00:59:42.805
respiratory infections, and half of all

00:59:42.805 --> 00:59:46.805
CF patients die before the age of 30.

00:59:48.983 --> 00:59:50.983
David Waltz - To think that we can still

00:59:50.983 --> 00:59:53.333
be hopeful that their child will grow up

00:59:53.333 --> 00:59:56.813
to have a normal, healthy, happy, and long

00:59:56.813 --> 01:00:00.333
life. But at the present time, I don't

01:00:00.333 --> 01:00:02.743
have any guarantees about that.

01:00:02.743 --> 01:00:04.583
Kathy - Someone had asked me, "Are you

01:00:04.583 --> 01:00:08.583
prepared to bury your son at such a young

01:00:08.583 --> 01:00:11.583
age, whether it's four or 40?" And he was

01:00:11.583 --> 01:00:13.513
seventeen days old when that happened

01:00:13.513 --> 01:00:15.403
and I said, "I've had him for seventeen

01:00:15.403 --> 01:00:18.763
days, and I wouldn't trade those seventeen
days."

01:00:18.763 --> 01:00:20.523
(Narrator) Finding the genetic defect

01:00:20.523 --> 01:00:24.523
that causes CF was big news back in 1989.

01:00:25.943 --> 01:00:27.783
News woman - Medical researchers say

01:00:27.783 --> 01:00:29.613
they have discovered the gene which is

01:00:29.613 --> 01:00:31.613
responsible for Cystic Fibrosis; the most

01:00:31.613 --> 01:00:34.083
common inherited fatal disease in this
country.

01:00:34.083 --> 01:00:36.043
Robert Dresing - We're going to cure this

01:00:36.043 --> 01:00:36.793
disease...

01:00:36.793 --> 01:00:38.753
(Narrator) A lot of people expected the

01:00:38.753 --> 01:00:42.753
cure to arrive any day... it didn't.

01:00:42.753 --> 01:00:44.663
Francis Collins, now head of the gov's

01:00:44.663 --> 01:00:47.363
Genome Project, led one of the teams that

01:00:47.363 --> 01:00:49.833
discovered the CF gene.

01:00:49.833 --> 01:00:51.653
Francis - We still have not seen this

01:00:51.653 --> 01:00:53.643
disease cured or even particularly

01:00:53.643 --> 01:00:55.333
benefitted by all of this wonderful

01:00:55.333 --> 01:00:57.303
molecular biology. CF is still treated

01:00:57.303 --> 01:00:59.463
pretty much the way it was 10 years ago,

01:00:59.463 --> 01:01:01.703
but that is going to change.

01:01:01.703 --> 01:01:03.463
(Narrator) The original hope was that

01:01:03.463 --> 01:01:05.983
babies like Riley could be cured by gene

01:01:05.983 --> 01:01:08.363
therapy. Medicine that would provide a

01:01:08.363 --> 01:01:11.733
good working copy of a broken gene, but

01:01:11.733 --> 01:01:14.253
attempts at gene therapy have hardly ever

01:01:14.253 --> 01:01:17.493
worked. They remain highly controversial,

01:01:17.493 --> 01:01:19.233
so if there's gonna be an effective

01:01:19.233 --> 01:01:21.513
treatment for Riley, instead of fixing his

01:01:21.513 --> 01:01:24.393
genes, we're gonna take a look -- and this

01:01:24.393 --> 01:01:28.043
is new territory -- at his proteins.

01:01:28.043 --> 01:01:30.123
Narrator - What do proteins do?

01:01:30.123 --> 01:01:32.083
Venter - When you look at yourself in the

01:01:32.083 --> 01:01:34.013
mirror, you don't see DNA, you don't see

01:01:34.013 --> 01:01:37.373
RNA... you see proteins and the result of

01:01:37.373 --> 01:01:40.373
protein-action. That's what we are

01:01:40.373 --> 01:01:41.863
physically composed of.

01:01:41.863 --> 01:01:44.463
Narrator - So it's not a Rodgers and 
Hammerstein thing

01:01:44.463 --> 01:01:46.473
where one guy does the tune and the other

01:01:46.473 --> 01:01:48.433
guy does the lyrics, this is a case where

01:01:48.433 --> 01:01:50.233
the genes create the proteins and the

01:01:50.233 --> 01:01:51.173
proteins create us.

01:01:51.173 --> 01:01:52.703
Craig - That's right, we are the

01:01:52.703 --> 01:01:54.463
accumulation of our proteins and our

01:01:54.463 --> 01:01:56.583
protein activities.

01:01:56.583 --> 01:01:58.583
(Narrator) A protein starts out as a long

01:01:58.583 --> 01:02:01.343
chain of different chemicals, amino acids.

01:02:01.343 --> 01:02:04.323
But, unlike genes, proteins won't work in

01:02:04.323 --> 01:02:07.043
a straight line.

01:02:07.043 --> 01:02:09.963
Francis - Genes are effectively
one-dimensional.

01:02:09.963 --> 01:02:12.643
If you write down the sequence of A,C,G, 
and T,

01:02:12.643 --> 01:02:14.583
that's kinda what you need to know about

01:02:14.583 --> 01:02:17.753
that gene. But proteins are 3-dimensional.

01:02:17.753 --> 01:02:20.153
They have to be, because we're 
3-dimensional and

01:02:20.153 --> 01:02:22.233
we're made of those proteins, otherwise

01:02:22.233 --> 01:02:25.473
we'd all sort of be linear, unimaginably

01:02:25.473 --> 01:02:28.473
weird creatures.

01:02:28.473 --> 01:02:30.423
(Narrator) Here's part of the protein.

01:02:30.423 --> 01:02:33.613
Think of them as tangles of ribbon.

01:02:33.613 --> 01:02:35.383
They come in any number of different

01:02:35.383 --> 01:02:38.043
shapes. They can look like this, or like

01:02:38.043 --> 01:02:43.383
this, or like this. The varieties are

01:02:43.383 --> 01:02:46.983
endless. But, when it's created, every

01:02:46.983 --> 01:02:49.953
protein is told, "Here is your shape."

01:02:49.953 --> 01:02:52.653
and that shape defines what it does,

01:02:52.653 --> 01:02:54.893
tells all the other proteins what it does,

01:02:54.893 --> 01:02:56.813
and that's how they recognize each other

01:02:56.813 --> 01:02:59.813
when they hook up and do business.

01:02:59.813 --> 01:03:03.493
In the protein world, your shape is your

01:03:03.493 --> 01:03:06.253
destiny.

01:03:06.253 --> 01:03:08.783
Francis - They have needs and reasons to

01:03:08.783 --> 01:03:10.503
want to be snuggled up against each

01:03:10.503 --> 01:03:12.813
other in a particular way. And actually,

01:03:12.813 --> 01:03:15.303
a particular amino acid sequence will

01:03:15.303 --> 01:03:17.783
almost always fold in a precise way.

01:03:17.783 --> 01:03:19.643
Narrator - Should I think origami-like?

01:03:19.643 --> 01:03:21.453
When you're stretching, folding, and--

01:03:21.453 --> 01:03:24.343
Francis - It's elegant, very complicated,

01:03:24.343 --> 01:03:27.223
and we still do not have the ability to

01:03:27.223 --> 01:03:29.293
precisely predict how that's going to

01:03:29.293 --> 01:03:31.793
work, but obviously it does work.

01:03:31.793 --> 01:03:33.823
(Narrator) Except, of course, if something

01:03:33.823 --> 01:03:35.703
does go wrong, and that's what happened

01:03:35.703 --> 01:03:38.883
to baby Riley.

01:03:38.883 --> 01:03:42.323
Riley has a tiny error in his DNA, just

01:03:42.323 --> 01:03:44.303
three letters out of three billion are

01:03:44.303 --> 01:03:46.823
missing, but because of that error he has

01:03:46.823 --> 01:03:49.043
a faulty gene, and that faulty gene

01:03:49.043 --> 01:03:52.283
creates a faulty or misshapen protein.

01:03:52.283 --> 01:03:54.623
And just the slightest little changes in

01:03:54.623 --> 01:03:57.543
shape and "Boom" the consequences are

01:03:57.543 --> 01:04:01.183
huge, because it is now misshapen and

01:04:01.183 --> 01:04:03.123
a key protein that is found in the lung

01:04:03.123 --> 01:04:07.123
cells can't do it's job. So, let's take a

01:04:07.123 --> 01:04:09.583
look at some real lung cells, we'll travel

01:04:09.583 --> 01:04:14.463
in. This is the lining, or the membrane

01:04:14.463 --> 01:04:16.463
of a lung cell, and here's how the protein

01:04:16.463 --> 01:04:19.823
is supposed to work. The top of your

01:04:19.823 --> 01:04:21.643
screen is the outside of a cell, the

01:04:21.643 --> 01:04:23.683
bottom the inside of the cell, of course,

01:04:23.683 --> 01:04:26.133
and our healthy protein is providing a,

01:04:26.133 --> 01:04:28.973
kind of chute so that salt can enter and

01:04:28.973 --> 01:04:30.983
leave the cell. Those little green bubbles

01:04:30.983 --> 01:04:34.183
that's salt and. as you see here, the salt

01:04:34.183 --> 01:04:39.093
is getting through. But if the protein is

01:04:39.093 --> 01:04:42.083
not the right shape, then it's not allowed

01:04:42.083 --> 01:04:45.443
into the membrane; it can't do its job.

01:04:45.443 --> 01:04:47.593
And, without that protein, as you see here

01:04:47.593 --> 01:04:50.203
salt gets trapped inside the cell and that

01:04:50.203 --> 01:04:52.563
triggers a whole chain of reactions that

01:04:52.563 --> 01:04:55.293
makes the cell surface sticky and covered

01:04:55.293 --> 01:04:59.293
with thick mucus.

01:05:00.143 --> 01:05:02.063
Woman - The first two positions that are

01:05:02.063 --> 01:05:04.063
done sitting up are probably a little more

01:05:04.063 --> 01:05:04.943
difficult to do...

01:05:04.943 --> 01:05:06.873
(Narrator) The mucus has to be dislodged

01:05:06.873 --> 01:05:09.913
physically. Riley's family is learning to

01:05:09.913 --> 01:05:11.673
loosen the mucus that may develop in

01:05:11.673 --> 01:05:13.553
his lungs and fight infections with

01:05:13.553 --> 01:05:14.833
antibiotics.

01:05:14.833 --> 01:05:16.593
(Woman) You sort of wanna do it with

01:05:16.593 --> 01:05:17.573
a cupped hand.

01:05:17.573 --> 01:05:19.513
(Father) Trying to get at the top of the

01:05:19.513 --> 01:05:21.833
lungs?
Woman - Yep, you wanna be like right here-

01:05:21.833 --> 01:05:25.593
(Narrator) But what the doctors and the
scientists would love to do is, if they

01:05:25.593 --> 01:05:29.683
can't fix baby Riley's genes, then maybe
there's someway to treat Riley's misshapen

01:05:29.683 --> 01:05:33.683
protein and restore the original shape.

01:05:33.683 --> 01:05:35.763
Because if you could just get them shaped

01:05:35.763 --> 01:05:37.813
right, the protein should become instantly

01:05:37.813 --> 01:05:40.173
recognizable to other proteins and get

01:05:40.173 --> 01:05:43.373
back to business.

01:05:43.373 --> 01:05:45.253
But, look at these things. How would we

01:05:45.253 --> 01:05:47.853
ever learn to properly fold wildly

01:05:47.853 --> 01:05:51.093
multi-dimensional proteins? It may

01:05:51.093 --> 01:05:55.093
be doable, but it won't be easy.

01:05:55.093 --> 01:05:56.853
Eric Lander - The Genome Project was

01:05:56.853 --> 01:05:58.693
a piece of cake compared to most other

01:05:58.693 --> 01:06:00.693
things, because genetic information is

01:06:00.693 --> 01:06:03.173
linear. It goes in a simple line up and

01:06:03.173 --> 01:06:05.503
down the chromosome. Once you start

01:06:05.503 --> 01:06:08.003
talking about the 3-dimensional shapes

01:06:08.003 --> 01:06:11.523
into which protein change can fold, and

01:06:11.523 --> 01:06:13.443
how they can stick to each other in many

01:06:13.443 --> 01:06:15.893
different ways to do things. Or the ways

01:06:15.893 --> 01:06:17.973
in which cells can interact, like wiring

01:06:17.973 --> 01:06:19.653
up in your brain... you're not in a

01:06:19.653 --> 01:06:21.783
one-dimensional problem anymore. You're

01:06:21.783 --> 01:06:25.783
not in Kansas anymore.

01:06:25.783 --> 01:06:27.603
(Narrator) As the scientists head into

01:06:27.603 --> 01:06:29.413
the world of proteins, they're looking

01:06:29.413 --> 01:06:33.613
very closely at patients like Tony Ramos.

01:06:33.613 --> 01:06:36.253
Tony has cystic fibrosis, but it's not the

01:06:36.253 --> 01:06:40.253
typical case. CF almost always develops in

01:06:40.253 --> 01:06:43.453
early childhood. Tony didn't have any

01:06:43.453 --> 01:06:46.673
symptoms until she was 15.

01:06:46.673 --> 01:06:49.243
Tony - I started having a cough, and then

01:06:49.243 --> 01:06:51.313
we kept thinking I was catching a lot of

01:06:51.313 --> 01:06:53.873
colds and my step-mother thought,

01:06:53.873 --> 01:06:55.753
"Well, that's not right." So, I started

01:06:55.753 --> 01:06:58.023
going to doctors, trying to figure it out.

01:06:58.023 --> 01:07:02.503
And went through a lot of tests because
I don't fit the profile. Tuberculosis,

01:07:02.503 --> 01:07:06.503
walking pneumonia, ya know, test after
test.

01:07:07.515 --> 01:07:09.235
(Narrator) At the time of diagnosis,

01:07:09.235 --> 01:07:10.965
Tony's family was told she might not

01:07:10.965 --> 01:07:15.525
survive beyond her twenty-first birthday.

01:07:15.525 --> 01:07:19.013
She's now in her mid-forties. But her CF

01:07:19.013 --> 01:07:21.343
is worsening. 2 or 3 times a year she does

01:07:21.343 --> 01:07:23.423
have to be admitted to the hospital to

01:07:23.423 --> 01:07:26.793
clean out her lungs.

01:07:26.793 --> 01:07:28.673
Tony - Ya know, they were always doing

01:07:28.673 --> 01:07:33.053
some little funky study to help the cause,
because we're not the normal, ya know

01:07:33.053 --> 01:07:35.763
there's not a whole lot of us. I know that

01:07:35.763 --> 01:07:38.323
they don't know why, and it's the big

01:07:38.323 --> 01:07:40.923
question mark, and hopefully research

01:07:40.923 --> 01:07:43.473
will keep going and figure it out.

01:07:43.473 --> 01:07:47.443
(Narrator) Here's the question: Tony was
born with a mistake in the same gene as

01:07:47.443 --> 01:07:49.973
baby Riley, and yet for some reason, when

01:07:49.973 --> 01:07:53.973
Tony was a baby, she didn't get sick. Why?

01:07:53.973 --> 01:07:57.253
And now that she is sick, she hasn't died.

01:07:57.253 --> 01:08:01.253
Why? What does Tony have that the other

01:08:01.253 --> 01:08:04.073
CF patients don't have?

01:08:05.812 --> 01:08:08.772
Dr. Craig Gerrard believes the answer lies

01:08:08.772 --> 01:08:10.852
in her genes; in her DNA.

01:08:10.852 --> 01:08:13.112
Dr. Gerrard - Good morning.
Tony - Good morning.

01:08:13.112 --> 01:08:16.682
Dr. Gerrard - So, do you think the change
in the antibiotics is helping you?

01:08:16.682 --> 01:08:18.642
Tony - Yes, and I've dropped four pounds

01:08:18.642 --> 01:08:21.042
overnight.
Dr. Gerrard - (laughing) That's a lot of

01:08:21.042 --> 01:08:21.982
weight.
Tony - Yeah!

01:08:21.982 --> 01:08:24.052
Dr. Gerrard - Okay, mind if I have a
listen?

01:08:24.053 --> 01:08:26.053
(Dr. Gerrard) - No gene acts in isolation,

01:08:26.053 --> 01:08:29.153
it is always acting as a part of a larger

01:08:29.153 --> 01:08:33.043
picture. And therefore, the other genes,

01:08:33.043 --> 01:08:35.443
which compensate.

01:08:35.443 --> 01:08:37.443
(Narrator) Could it be that Tony has some

01:08:37.443 --> 01:08:39.883
other genetic mutations, good mutations,

01:08:39.883 --> 01:08:42.643
that are producing good proteins, that

01:08:42.643 --> 01:08:44.703
kept her healthy for 15 years and are

01:08:44.703 --> 01:08:47.353
keeping her alive right now?

01:08:47.353 --> 01:08:51.113
(Dr. Gerrard) You sound a lot better than
you did when you came in. So, I think

01:08:51.113 --> 01:08:54.273
you're on the mend. Okay, hang in there.
Tony - Thanks, bye.

01:08:54.273 --> 01:08:56.103
Dr. Gerrard - In my opinion, there are

01:08:56.103 --> 01:08:59.083
genes that are allowing her to have a

01:08:59.083 --> 01:09:03.083
more beneficial course, if you will, than

01:09:03.083 --> 01:09:06.743
another patient.

01:09:06.743 --> 01:09:10.493
Woman - You sound good.

01:09:10.493 --> 01:09:12.373
(Narrator) Dr. Gerrard is searching for

01:09:12.373 --> 01:09:16.213
the special ingredient in Tony. If it

01:09:16.213 --> 01:09:18.563
turns out she has one or two proteins that

01:09:18.563 --> 01:09:20.823
are helping her, maybe we could bottle

01:09:20.823 --> 01:09:23.553
them and use them to help all CF patients,

01:09:23.553 --> 01:09:25.603
like little Riley.

01:09:25.603 --> 01:09:29.273
(Woman) If there was ever an emergency,
and I didn't know how to do it, and I

01:09:29.273 --> 01:09:32.573
couldn't get in touch with you--
(Narrator) No one can predict Riley's

01:09:32.573 --> 01:09:36.363
future, or to what extent CF will affect
his life. But now that we are getting a

01:09:36.363 --> 01:09:38.523
map of our genes, we'll be able to take

01:09:38.523 --> 01:09:41.383
the next big step. Because, what genes

01:09:41.383 --> 01:09:45.383
do, basically, is they make proteins.

01:09:46.108 --> 01:09:48.128
Narrator - I get the sense that everybody

01:09:48.128 --> 01:09:51.808
is getting out of the gene business, and
suddenly going into this new business

01:09:51.808 --> 01:09:53.918
I hear about, called, "The Protein
Business."

01:09:53.918 --> 01:09:57.288
There's even a new name, instead of
"The Genome" I'm hearing this other

01:09:57.288 --> 01:09:59.278
name, "The Proteome".
Eric - The Proteome.

01:09:59.278 --> 01:10:00.958
(Narrator) The Proteome.
Eric - Yes.

01:10:00.958 --> 01:10:04.098
(Narrator) What is that?
Eric - Well, the genome is the collection

01:10:04.098 --> 01:10:07.938
of all your genes and DNA. The proteome,
is the collection of all your proteins.

01:10:07.938 --> 01:10:11.938
See, what's happening is, we're realizing
that if we wanted to understand life, we

01:10:11.938 --> 01:10:14.158
had to start systematically at the bottom

01:10:14.158 --> 01:10:16.198
and get all the building blocks. The first

01:10:16.198 --> 01:10:18.838
building blocks are the DNA letters, from

01:10:18.838 --> 01:10:21.578
them we can infer the genes. From the

01:10:21.578 --> 01:10:24.518
genes we can infer the protein products

01:10:24.518 --> 01:10:26.398
that they make, that do all the work of

01:10:26.398 --> 01:10:28.628
the cell. Then we've gotta understand what

01:10:28.628 --> 01:10:30.418
each of those proteins does, what its

01:10:30.418 --> 01:10:32.458
shape is, how they interact with each

01:10:32.458 --> 01:10:35.198
other, and how they make kind of circuits

01:10:35.198 --> 01:10:37.208
and connections with each other. So,

01:10:37.208 --> 01:10:39.408
in some sense, this is just the beginning

01:10:39.408 --> 01:10:42.378
of a very comprehensive, systematic

01:10:42.378 --> 01:10:45.768
program to understand all the components

01:10:45.768 --> 01:10:48.168
and how they all connect with each other.

01:10:48.168 --> 01:10:50.178
(Narrator) All the components and how they

01:10:50.178 --> 01:10:52.548
connect. But how many components are

01:10:52.548 --> 01:10:55.308
there? How many genes and how many

01:10:55.308 --> 01:10:57.228
proteins do we have?

01:10:57.228 --> 01:10:58.948
Eric - A real shock about the genome

01:10:58.948 --> 01:11:01.528
sequence was that we have so many fewer

01:11:01.528 --> 01:11:03.148
genes than we've been teaching our

01:11:03.148 --> 01:11:05.408
students. The official textbook answer is

01:11:05.408 --> 01:11:08.158
the human has a 100,000 genes. Everyone's

01:11:08.158 --> 01:11:11.068
known that since the early 1980's, the

01:11:11.068 --> 01:11:13.298
only problem is is it's not true. Turns

01:11:13.298 --> 01:11:16.278
we only have 30,000 or so genes.

01:11:16.278 --> 01:11:18.428
(Narrator) 30,000 genes, that's it? Not

01:11:18.428 --> 01:11:20.258
everybody agrees with this number, but

01:11:20.258 --> 01:11:24.828
that's about as many as a mouse. Even
a fruit-fly has 14,000 genes.

01:11:24.828 --> 01:11:26.708
Eric - That's really bothersome to many

01:11:26.708 --> 01:11:29.228
people that we only have about twice as

01:11:29.228 --> 01:11:31.248
many genes as a fruit-fly, because we

01:11:31.248 --> 01:11:33.288
really like to think of ourselves as a lot

01:11:33.288 --> 01:11:35.328
more than twice as complex. Well, don't

01:11:35.328 --> 01:11:37.328
you? I certainly like to think of myself

01:11:37.328 --> 01:11:40.558
that way. And so, it raises two questions,

01:11:40.558 --> 01:11:42.548
are we really more complex?

01:11:42.548 --> 01:11:46.388
Narrator - You show me the fruit fly that
can compose like Mozart and then I'll--

01:11:46.388 --> 01:11:48.438
Eric - Well, show me a human that can fly.

01:11:48.438 --> 01:11:50.288
Right? So...
(Narrator) Ooo (laughing)

01:11:50.288 --> 01:11:52.608
Eric - (laughing) We all have our talents,
right?

01:11:52.608 --> 01:11:54.648
(Narrator) I suppose we do, but as it

01:11:54.648 --> 01:11:57.088
happens, we have lots of genes that are

01:11:57.088 --> 01:12:00.728
virtually identical in us and fruit flies.

01:12:00.728 --> 01:12:03.658
But, happily, our genes seem to do more,

01:12:03.658 --> 01:12:07.238
so, let's say that I am a fruit fly. One
of

01:12:07.238 --> 01:12:11.238
my fruit fly genes may make one and two

01:12:11.238 --> 01:12:14.068
slightly different proteins, but now I'm a

01:12:14.068 --> 01:12:16.548
human and the very same gene in me

01:12:16.548 --> 01:12:20.878
might make one, two, three, four different

01:12:20.878 --> 01:12:23.118
proteins, and these four proteins could

01:12:23.118 --> 01:12:29.058
combine and build even bigger and more
proteins.

01:12:29.058 --> 01:12:32.238
Eric - It turns out, that the gene makes a

01:12:32.238 --> 01:12:35.318
message, but the message can be spliced up

01:12:35.318 --> 01:12:37.428
in different ways. And, so, a gene might

01:12:37.428 --> 01:12:39.988
make three proteins or four proteins

01:12:39.988 --> 01:12:42.708
and then that protein can get modified.

01:12:42.708 --> 01:12:44.658
There could be other proteins that stick

01:12:44.658 --> 01:12:48.208
some phosphate group on it or two

01:12:48.208 --> 01:12:52.698
phosphates groups. And, in fact, all these

01:12:52.698 --> 01:12:55.308
modifications to the proteins could make

01:12:55.308 --> 01:12:57.248
them function differently. So, while you

01:12:57.248 --> 01:13:00.308
might only have 30,000 genes, you could

01:13:00.308 --> 01:13:02.748
have 100,000 distinct proteins, and when

01:13:02.748 --> 01:13:06.428
you're done putting all of the different
modifications on them, there might be

01:13:06.428 --> 01:13:08.488
a million of them.
(narrator clears throat)

01:13:08.488 --> 01:13:09.208
Scary thought.

01:13:09.208 --> 01:13:11.268
Narrator - So, starting with the same raw

01:13:11.268 --> 01:13:16.258
ingredients, the fruit fly goes, "mmm,
spch, mmm, spch, mmm, spch."

01:13:16.258 --> 01:13:19.238
but the human, by somehow or other, being

01:13:19.238 --> 01:13:21.018
able to arrange all the parts in many

01:13:21.018 --> 01:13:25.698
different ways, can produce melodies,
perhaps?

01:13:25.698 --> 01:13:28.828
Eric - Yes, although we're not that good

01:13:28.828 --> 01:13:31.578
at hearing the melodies yet. One of the

01:13:31.578 --> 01:13:36.418
exciting things about reading the genome
sequence now, is we're getting a glimpse

01:13:36.418 --> 01:13:39.348
at that complexity of the parts and how

01:13:39.348 --> 01:13:42.428
it's a symphony, rather than a simple tune

01:13:42.428 --> 01:13:46.278
but it's not that easy to just read
that sheet

01:13:46.278 --> 01:13:48.858
music there and hear the symphony that's

01:13:48.858 --> 01:13:51.268
coming out of it.

01:13:51.268 --> 01:13:54.898
(Narrator) Okay, so it's not just the
number of genes, it's all the different

01:13:54.898 --> 01:13:59.058
proteins they can make and the ways those
proteins interact, and to find out all of

01:13:59.058 --> 01:14:01.378
those interactions and how they affect

01:14:01.378 --> 01:14:03.608
health and disease, that's gonna keep

01:14:03.608 --> 01:14:05.688
scientists very busy for the next few

01:14:05.688 --> 01:14:08.678
decades. But, of course, before the

01:14:08.678 --> 01:14:11.278
research can begin in earnest, they first

01:14:11.278 --> 01:14:13.478
have to complete the parts list of all the

01:14:13.478 --> 01:14:17.478
genes. And by the spring of 2000, both

01:14:17.478 --> 01:14:20.098
sides, the public labs and Celera, they

01:14:20.098 --> 01:14:23.418
were in hyper-drive. Each camp madly

01:14:23.418 --> 01:14:26.338
trying to be first to reach the finish
line and get

01:14:26.338 --> 01:14:30.338
all 3 billion letters.

01:14:30.338 --> 01:14:32.278
(Gene Myers) The pace of things, and the

01:14:32.278 --> 01:14:34.848
magnitude of things was really incredible.

01:14:34.848 --> 01:14:36.728
I mean, I would remember coming in and

01:14:36.728 --> 01:14:38.858
just having this gripping feeling in my

01:14:38.858 --> 01:14:42.858
gut, just an intense, "Oh my God, am up to
this?"

01:14:45.020 --> 01:14:47.130
Robert Cook-Degan - You know whoever has

01:14:47.130 --> 01:14:48.860
this reference sequence to the human

01:14:48.860 --> 01:14:50.940
genome out there in the world first...

01:14:50.940 --> 01:14:53.750
they're going to be famous. They're gonna

01:14:53.750 --> 01:14:55.830
be on the front page of The New York 
Times,

01:14:55.830 --> 01:14:57.840
and a lot more than that, for a long time.

01:14:57.840 --> 01:15:01.210
And they're gonna be, ya know, 
celebrities.

01:15:01.210 --> 01:15:05.650
And, ya know, when that's going on, it's

01:15:05.650 --> 01:15:07.610
not unreasonable that people are gonna

01:15:07.610 --> 01:15:09.530
reach for that star and try to get there

01:15:09.530 --> 01:15:13.530
before the other person.

01:15:13.530 --> 01:15:15.730
(Tony White) I thought that the 
really intense

01:15:15.730 --> 01:15:19.330
Tony - competition of this world was
among business, where there is a profit

01:15:19.330 --> 01:15:23.790
motive. I now find that we are pikers in
the business world, compared to the

01:15:23.790 --> 01:15:27.010
academic competition that exists out
there.

01:15:27.010 --> 01:15:31.010
And I'm beginning to understand why,
because their currency is publication.

01:15:31.010 --> 01:15:33.290
Their currency is attribution. And their

01:15:33.290 --> 01:15:37.290
next funding comes from their last 
victory.

01:15:38.467 --> 01:15:42.427
(Robert) I think we're all better off for
the fact that there is this competition.

01:15:42.427 --> 01:15:45.362
What you want is a system that gets

01:15:45.362 --> 01:15:47.432
people riled up and try to do something

01:15:47.432 --> 01:15:51.432
faster, better, and cheaper than the next
guy.

01:15:53.268 --> 01:15:55.088
(New Speaker, Male) The environment at

01:15:55.088 --> 01:16:00.268
Celera was extremely intense and it
reminded me of finals week at Cal. Tech.

01:16:00.268 --> 01:16:02.388
Man - And there's a tradition at Cal. Tech

01:16:02.388 --> 01:16:05.188
that on the very first day of finals week,

01:16:05.188 --> 01:16:07.848
the Ride of The Valkyries is played at
full blast.

01:16:07.848 --> 01:16:09.688
And, so, I thought well, since every

01:16:09.688 --> 01:16:11.768
week feels like it's finals week here, why

01:16:11.768 --> 01:16:14.698
don't I play the ride and see what
happens?

01:16:14.698 --> 01:16:16.618
So, we got a whole bunch of viking hats,

01:16:16.618 --> 01:16:19.578
and we end up buying Nerf bows, because

01:16:19.578 --> 01:16:23.578
we're Nordic Valkyrians. So, the next week

01:16:23.578 --> 01:16:25.528
we're shooting each other, and we go,

01:16:25.528 --> 01:16:29.248
"Ya know, there's something not right
about this." So, we decided the next week

01:16:29.248 --> 01:16:33.888
that we would start doing raiding parties
and raid some of the other teams.

01:16:33.888 --> 01:16:37.888
Unannounced to us, they had been preparing
themselves.

01:16:37.888 --> 01:16:39.888
Man - Hey, you guys go to the back-stairs.

01:16:39.888 --> 01:16:42.678
(Man) - They had little beanie caps, and

01:16:42.678 --> 01:16:46.678
their own Nerf weapons and the war
started.

01:16:46.678 --> 01:16:50.958
(shooting sounds)
(Ride of the Valkyries music playing)

01:16:50.958 --> 01:16:55.878
(shooting sounds)

01:16:55.878 --> 01:16:58.668
(laughing)

01:16:58.668 --> 01:17:02.668
(shooting)

01:17:09.198 --> 01:17:13.988
(Man) It's just a release. It's a way of

01:17:13.988 --> 01:17:15.948
dealing with the pressure, I think.

01:17:15.948 --> 01:17:19.948
(laughing)
(shooting)

01:17:24.596 --> 01:17:26.566
(Man) We all ran like crazy for 5 or 10

01:17:26.566 --> 01:17:30.566
minutes, and got a little physical
exercise.

01:17:32.582 --> 01:17:35.522
And, had a few laughs and then we're

01:17:35.522 --> 01:17:39.522
ready to really go after it.
(laughing)

01:17:40.392 --> 01:17:43.402
(Narrator) The Wagner seems to be working.

01:17:43.402 --> 01:17:46.202
Output at Celera continues at a relentless

01:17:46.202 --> 01:17:51.042
pace. Venter insists that the urgency

01:17:51.042 --> 01:17:53.162
stems not only from a desire to beat

01:17:53.162 --> 01:17:55.412
the government project, but the firm

01:17:55.412 --> 01:17:57.292
belief that what's coming out of these

01:17:57.292 --> 01:17:59.732
machines, all the C's, T's, G's, and A's,

01:17:59.732 --> 01:18:03.732
will have a profound impact on all our
lives.

01:18:05.380 --> 01:18:07.660
(Venter) It's a new beginning in science.

01:18:07.660 --> 01:18:09.940
And, until we get all that data, that

01:18:09.940 --> 01:18:12.460
can't really take place.
Venter - I mean anyone who

01:18:12.460 --> 01:18:14.870
has cancer, anybody who has a family

01:18:14.870 --> 01:18:18.020
member with a serious disease, this data

01:18:18.020 --> 01:18:19.830
and information offers some tremendous

01:18:19.830 --> 01:18:22.820
hope that things could change in the 
future.

01:18:22.820 --> 01:18:26.550
Eric Lander - In the past, if you wanted
to explain Diabetes, you always had to

01:18:26.550 --> 01:18:30.430
scratch your head and say, "Well, it might
be something else that we've never seen

01:18:30.430 --> 01:18:33.910
before." But knowing that you have the
whole parts list, radically changes

01:18:33.910 --> 01:18:37.580
biomedical research. Because you can't
wave hand and say it might be something

01:18:37.580 --> 01:18:40.380
else. There is no "something else".

01:18:40.380 --> 01:18:43.380
(Man) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 C's in a row.

01:18:43.380 --> 01:18:46.150
(Narrator) In the past,
Narrator - Finding genes that cause

01:18:46.150 --> 01:18:48.430
disease was a painstakingly slow process,

01:18:48.430 --> 01:18:51.590
but, with the completion of a list, it

01:18:51.590 --> 01:18:53.500
should be much easier to make a direct

01:18:53.500 --> 01:18:57.840
connection from disease to gene. But how?

01:18:57.840 --> 01:18:59.680
Well, let's say I'm looking for a gene

01:18:59.680 --> 01:19:02.000
that causes something, we'll make it

01:19:02.000 --> 01:19:04.480
Male Pattern Baldness, how would I go

01:19:04.480 --> 01:19:06.680
about that. Well, I'd want to get a bunch

01:19:06.680 --> 01:19:09.100
of bald guys. So, here are three bald guys

01:19:09.100 --> 01:19:11.900
and take their blood and look at their

01:19:11.900 --> 01:19:14.880
DNA. Now, I'll take three guys with lots

01:19:14.880 --> 01:19:17.920
of hair, and here's their DNA. And, what

01:19:17.920 --> 01:19:20.760
if the bald guys all share a particular

01:19:20.760 --> 01:19:23.410
spelling right here in this spot, which we

01:19:23.410 --> 01:19:26.400
will call, "The Bald Spot", and at the

01:19:26.400 --> 01:19:28.920
same spot, you notice the hairy guys have

01:19:28.920 --> 01:19:34.280
a different spelling. So, is this the gene

01:19:34.280 --> 01:19:37.960
that causes baldness? Maybe, but probably

01:19:37.960 --> 01:19:40.580
not. This could be a coincidence. So, how

01:19:40.580 --> 01:19:42.610
do I improve my chances of finding the

01:19:42.610 --> 01:19:44.790
specific spelling difference that relates

01:19:44.790 --> 01:19:48.270
to baldness? It would help if I knew that

01:19:48.270 --> 01:19:50.350
the bald guys, and the hairy guys had

01:19:50.350 --> 01:19:54.350
really similar DNA, except for the genes

01:19:54.350 --> 01:19:57.340
I suspect may make them bald or hairy.

01:19:57.340 --> 01:19:59.420
Where do I find guys who are very very

01:19:59.420 --> 01:20:02.700
similar with a few exceptions? A family

01:20:02.700 --> 01:20:04.740
right? If they were brothers, and fathers,

01:20:04.740 --> 01:20:06.740
and sons, and cousins, for instance, who

01:20:06.740 --> 01:20:08.900
share lots of genes...

01:20:08.900 --> 01:20:12.820
(Narrator) So, let's say these three guys
are brothers. Astonishing similarities,

01:20:12.820 --> 01:20:16.820
really, in the face, but notice that one
of them is hairy and two are bald.

01:20:16.820 --> 01:20:19.680
Whatever is making this one different,

01:20:19.680 --> 01:20:22.030
should stand out when you compare their

01:20:22.030 --> 01:20:25.190
genes. And same for these guys. There's

01:20:25.190 --> 01:20:27.410
a difference clearly in the photos, but

01:20:27.410 --> 01:20:30.970
that difference may turn up in the genes.

01:20:30.970 --> 01:20:34.630
Narrator - You can do the same thing for
any disease that you'd like. So, if I

01:20:34.630 --> 01:20:38.290
could comb through the DNA of lots of
people who are related, and I find some

01:20:38.290 --> 01:20:41.840
of them are sick and some of them are
healthy, I might have a much better

01:20:41.840 --> 01:20:47.130
chance of figuring out which genes are
involved. But where do I do this?

01:20:49.276 --> 01:20:52.036
(Narrator) Well, one place is a little

01:20:52.036 --> 01:20:54.916
island nation in the North Atlantic,

01:20:54.916 --> 01:20:58.916
Iceland. In many ways, Iceland is the

01:20:58.916 --> 01:21:00.796
perfect place to look for genes that

01:21:00.796 --> 01:21:05.286
cause diseases. It's got a tiny population

01:21:05.286 --> 01:21:08.436
only about 280,000 people, and virtually

01:21:08.436 --> 01:21:10.556
all of them are descended from the

01:21:10.556 --> 01:21:13.276
original settlers: Vikings who came here

01:21:13.276 --> 01:21:15.716
over 1,000 years ago.

01:21:15.716 --> 01:21:17.536
(music playing)

01:21:17.536 --> 01:21:20.066
(Kari) If you drive around this country,

01:21:20.066 --> 01:21:22.586
you will have great difficulties finding

01:21:22.586 --> 01:21:25.176
any evidence of a dynamic culture that

01:21:25.176 --> 01:21:27.586
was here for all of these 1,100 years.

01:21:27.586 --> 01:21:29.626
There are no great buildings, there are

01:21:29.626 --> 01:21:32.366
no monuments.

01:21:32.366 --> 01:21:34.306
(Narrator) But, one thing Iceland does

01:21:34.306 --> 01:21:36.346
have is a fantastic written history,

01:21:36.346 --> 01:21:40.346
including almost everybody's family tree.

01:21:42.595 --> 01:21:46.595
And now, it's all in a giant database.

01:21:46.595 --> 01:21:49.275
Just punch in a social security number and

01:21:49.275 --> 01:21:52.115
there they are, all of your ancestors,

01:21:52.115 --> 01:21:54.675
right back to the original Viking.

01:21:54.675 --> 01:21:56.535
Thordur - So, what we have here is my

01:21:56.535 --> 01:21:59.425
ancestor tree. I'm here at the bottom,

01:21:59.425 --> 01:22:02.785
this is my father and mother. My
grandparents,

01:22:02.785 --> 01:22:04.985
great-grandparents, and so on. We

01:22:04.985 --> 01:22:07.705
can find an individual that was one of

01:22:07.705 --> 01:22:10.145
the original settlers of Iceland. Here we

01:22:10.145 --> 01:22:13.535
have, "Ketill Bjarnarson" called,

01:22:13.535 --> 01:22:15.905
"Ketill "flatnefur", meaning he had a

01:22:15.905 --> 01:22:18.945
flat nose. So, he may have broken it in

01:22:18.945 --> 01:22:21.425
a fight or something. And we estimate

01:22:21.425 --> 01:22:25.425
that he was born around the year 805.

01:22:25.425 --> 01:22:27.645
(music playing)

01:22:27.645 --> 01:22:29.605
(Narrator) Kari Stephanson is a Harvard

01:22:29.605 --> 01:22:31.645
trained scientist who saw the potentional

01:22:31.645 --> 01:22:33.685
gold mine that might be hidden in

01:22:33.685 --> 01:22:37.965
Iceland's genetic history. He set up a

01:22:37.965 --> 01:22:40.526
company called, "Decode Genetics" to

01:22:40.526 --> 01:22:42.366
combine age-old family trees with

01:22:42.366 --> 01:22:44.646
state-of-the-art DNA analysis and computer

01:22:44.646 --> 01:22:47.646
technology, and systematically hunt down

01:22:47.646 --> 01:22:50.926
the genes that cause disease.

01:22:50.926 --> 01:22:52.786
Kari - Our idea was to try to bring

01:22:52.786 --> 01:22:55.386
together as much data on healthcare

01:22:55.386 --> 01:22:58.316
as possible. As much data on genetics

01:22:58.316 --> 01:23:01.196
as possible, and the genealogy, and simply

01:23:01.196 --> 01:23:03.726
use the information tools to help us to

01:23:03.726 --> 01:23:05.806
discover new knowledge. To discover

01:23:05.806 --> 01:23:09.806
new ways to diagnose, treat, prevent
diseases.

01:23:11.475 --> 01:23:13.425
(Narrator) One of Decode's first projects

01:23:13.425 --> 01:23:18.665
was to look for the genes that might
cause Osteoarthritis.

01:23:18.665 --> 01:23:20.585
Ryn Hydr Magnus Dotre had the

01:23:20.585 --> 01:23:23.745
debilitating disease most of her life.

01:23:23.745 --> 01:23:28.905
Ryn - The first symptoms appeared when I

01:23:28.905 --> 01:23:32.905
was 12, and by the age of 14 my knees

01:23:32.905 --> 01:23:37.705
hurt very badly. No one really paid any

01:23:37.705 --> 01:23:41.495
attention, that's just the way it was.

01:23:41.495 --> 01:23:44.575
But, by the age of 39, I'd had enough, so

01:23:44.575 --> 01:23:49.205
I went to a Doctor.

01:23:49.425 --> 01:23:52.025
(Narrator) Mrs. Magnus was never alone in

01:23:52.025 --> 01:23:56.025
her suffering, she is one of 17 children.

01:23:56.025 --> 01:23:58.385
11 of them were so stricken with arthritis

01:23:58.385 --> 01:24:01.475
that they had to have their hips replaced.

01:24:01.475 --> 01:24:03.615
This was exactly the kind of family that

01:24:03.615 --> 01:24:07.135
Decode was looking for. They got

01:24:07.135 --> 01:24:09.745
Mrs. Magnus and other members of her

01:24:09.745 --> 01:24:12.235
family to donate blood samples for DNA

01:24:12.235 --> 01:24:14.845
analysis. And to find more of her

01:24:14.845 --> 01:24:17.145
relatives, people she'd never met,

01:24:17.145 --> 01:24:19.305
Decode just entered her social security

01:24:19.305 --> 01:24:22.335
number into their giant database and there

01:24:22.335 --> 01:24:26.335
they were. But which of these people have

01:24:26.335 --> 01:24:30.815
Arthritis? To find out, Stephanson asked

01:24:30.815 --> 01:24:32.605
the government of Iceland to give his

01:24:32.605 --> 01:24:34.965
company exclusive access to the entire

01:24:34.965 --> 01:24:37.785
country's medical records. In exchange,

01:24:37.785 --> 01:24:39.985
Decode would pay a million dollars a year

01:24:39.985 --> 01:24:42.615
plus a share of any profits. That way,

01:24:42.615 --> 01:24:44.775
Decode could link everything in their

01:24:44.775 --> 01:24:47.695
computers: DNA, health records, and

01:24:47.695 --> 01:24:49.965
family trees.

01:24:49.965 --> 01:24:53.045
Stephanson - This idea was probably more

01:24:53.045 --> 01:24:55.325
debated than any other issue in the

01:24:55.325 --> 01:24:58.605
history of the republic. On the eve of

01:24:58.605 --> 01:25:00.745
that parliamentary vote, on the bill,

01:25:00.745 --> 01:25:03.345
there was an opinion poll taken that

01:25:03.345 --> 01:25:05.345
showed that 75% of those that took a

01:25:05.345 --> 01:25:07.345
stand on the issue, supported the

01:25:07.345 --> 01:25:11.345
passage of the bill, 25% were against it.

01:25:11.345 --> 01:25:13.605
(Narrator) Among that 25% against were

01:25:13.605 --> 01:25:17.605
most of Iceland's doctors.

01:25:17.605 --> 01:25:19.815
(Tomas Zoega) I first thought that there

01:25:19.815 --> 01:25:22.615
was something fundamentally wrong

01:25:22.615 --> 01:25:24.975
in all of this. They do know everything

01:25:24.975 --> 01:25:27.585
about you. Not only about your medical

01:25:27.585 --> 01:25:29.975
history, about your medical past, but now

01:25:29.975 --> 01:25:34.715
have your gene, the DNA. They know about

01:25:34.715 --> 01:25:38.715
your future, about something about your

01:25:38.715 --> 01:25:41.075
children, and something about your elders.

01:25:41.075 --> 01:25:43.655
Bjorn Gundmarsson - We find ourselves

01:25:43.655 --> 01:25:45.795
paralyzed, because there is really nothing

01:25:45.795 --> 01:25:48.755
we can do. Because the one who takes the

01:25:48.755 --> 01:25:51.775
responsibility is the management of the

01:25:51.775 --> 01:25:54.785
Health Center. If they give away this

01:25:54.785 --> 01:25:58.105
information from the medical records, they

01:25:58.105 --> 01:26:00.785
get money. And everybody needs money.

01:26:00.785 --> 01:26:04.595
Healthcare really needs money.

01:26:04.595 --> 01:26:06.605
Narrator - So, what's really the problem

01:26:06.605 --> 01:26:10.395
here? Well, let's take a hypothetical
example, I'm gonna make all this up. Let's

01:26:10.395 --> 01:26:14.075
pretend these are medical records of an
average person, all we'll suppose that

01:26:14.075 --> 01:26:19.635
right here I see a HIV test, and then over
here is medication for anxiety after what

01:26:19.635 --> 01:26:23.025
appears to be a messy divorce, and over

01:26:23.025 --> 01:26:26.025
here a parent who died of Alzheimer's.

01:26:26.025 --> 01:26:27.965
Now, this is all stuff that could happen

01:26:27.965 --> 01:26:29.875
to anybody, but do you want it all in

01:26:29.875 --> 01:26:32.525
a central computer bank, and do you

01:26:32.525 --> 01:26:34.605
want it linked in the same computer

01:26:34.605 --> 01:26:36.845
to all of your relatives? And to your own

01:26:36.845 --> 01:26:39.925
personal DNA file? And should anybody have

01:26:39.925 --> 01:26:41.995
to go on a fishing expedition through

01:26:41.995 --> 01:26:46.365
your medical history, and your DNA?

01:26:46.365 --> 01:26:48.325
(Narrator) Well, it may frightening, but

01:26:48.325 --> 01:26:51.865
it also might work. Decode claims it's

01:26:51.865 --> 01:26:53.665
discovered several genes that may

01:26:53.665 --> 01:26:56.665
contribute to Osteoarthritis. So, this

01:26:56.665 --> 01:26:58.875
approach, combining family trees, medical

01:26:58.875 --> 01:27:01.075
records, and DNA could lead to better

01:27:01.075 --> 01:27:04.335
drugs, or to cures for a whole range of

01:27:04.335 --> 01:27:05.935
diseases.

01:27:05.935 --> 01:27:07.805
Stephanson - To have all of the data in

01:27:07.805 --> 01:27:10.245
one place so you can use the modern

01:27:10.245 --> 01:27:13.125
information equipment, to juxtapose the

01:27:13.125 --> 01:27:15.185
pieces of data and hope that the pieces

01:27:15.185 --> 01:27:17.585
fit. It's an absolutely fascinating

01:27:17.585 --> 01:27:18.625
possibility.

01:27:18.625 --> 01:27:20.065
(printing sounds)

01:27:20.065 --> 01:27:22.115
(Narrator) Stephanson says no one's forced

01:27:22.115 --> 01:27:24.175
to do this, and there are elaborate
privacy

01:27:24.175 --> 01:27:26.505
protections in place. No names are used,

01:27:26.505 --> 01:27:29.235
social security numbers are encoded. He

01:27:29.235 --> 01:27:31.335
also argues that the DNA part of the

01:27:31.335 --> 01:27:34.225
database is voluntary.

01:27:34.225 --> 01:27:37.715
Stephanson - The healthcare database
only contains healthcare information.

01:27:37.715 --> 01:27:41.095
We can cross reference it with DNA

01:27:41.095 --> 01:27:42.845
information, but only from those

01:27:42.845 --> 01:27:45.635
individuals who have been willing to give

01:27:45.635 --> 01:27:47.695
us blood, allowing us to isolate DNA,

01:27:47.695 --> 01:27:50.025
genotype it and cross referencing it with

01:27:50.025 --> 01:27:52.575
the database. Only from those who have

01:27:52.575 --> 01:27:55.855
deliberately taken that risk. It's not

01:27:55.855 --> 01:27:58.675
imposed on anyone, and no one who is

01:27:58.675 --> 01:28:02.675
scared of it, ya know who is really afraid

01:28:02.675 --> 01:28:06.675
of it, should come and give us blood.

01:28:06.675 --> 01:28:08.505
(Narrator) DNA databases are popping

01:28:08.505 --> 01:28:12.505
up all over the world, including the US.

01:28:12.505 --> 01:28:15.385
They all have rules for protecting privacy

01:28:15.385 --> 01:28:18.395
but they still make ethicists nervous.

01:28:18.395 --> 01:28:22.545
(George Annas) I like to use the analogy
of the DNA molecule to a "future diary".

01:28:22.685 --> 01:28:25.165
There's a lot of information in the DNA

01:28:25.165 --> 01:28:28.785
molecule. The reason I call it a "future
diary",

01:28:28.785 --> 01:28:30.785
is because I think it's that private.

01:28:30.785 --> 01:28:32.715
I don't think anybody should be able to

01:28:32.715 --> 01:28:36.345
open up your future diary, except you.

01:28:36.345 --> 01:28:38.165
(Narrator) One rather bleak vision of

01:28:38.165 --> 01:28:40.135
where all of this could lead it presented

01:28:40.135 --> 01:28:43.175
in the Hollywood film, "GATTACA".

01:28:43.175 --> 01:28:45.615
This is a world where everybody's DNA,

01:28:45.615 --> 01:28:47.735
everybody's future diary, is an open

01:28:47.735 --> 01:28:51.455
book. Everyone who can afford to has

01:28:51.455 --> 01:28:54.375
their children made to spec. But what

01:28:54.375 --> 01:28:56.695
happens to the poor slob who's conceived

01:28:56.695 --> 01:28:58.775
the old fashion way?

01:28:58.775 --> 01:29:00.455
(Boy from GATTACA film) I'll never

01:29:00.455 --> 01:29:03.995
understand what possessed my mother
to her faith in God's hands rather than

01:29:03.995 --> 01:29:08.725
those of her local geneticists.
(baby crying)

01:29:08.725 --> 01:29:11.085
Ten fingers, ten toes; that's all that

01:29:11.085 --> 01:29:14.465
used to matter. Not now... now, only

01:29:14.465 --> 01:29:17.405
seconds old, the exact time and cause of
(suction noise)

01:29:17.405 --> 01:29:20.825
my death was already known.

01:29:20.825 --> 01:29:24.385
(baby crying)

01:29:24.385 --> 01:29:26.445
Nurse - Neurological condition: 60%

01:29:26.445 --> 01:29:30.445
probability. ADD: 89% probability.

01:29:30.445 --> 01:29:35.925
Heart disorder....: 99% probability.

01:29:36.150 --> 01:29:42.010
Life expectancy: 30.2 years.
Father - 30 years...

01:29:42.010 --> 01:29:44.510
(Narrator) 30.2 years. The nurse seems to

01:29:44.510 --> 01:29:46.510
know precisely what is going to happen to

01:29:46.510 --> 01:29:48.870
this baby, which is ridiculous, right?

01:29:48.870 --> 01:29:52.170
Never happen. Or... is it possible that

01:29:52.170 --> 01:29:54.100
one day we will be able to look, with

01:29:54.100 --> 01:29:56.620
disturbing clarity, into our future?

01:29:56.620 --> 01:30:00.620
10, 20, even 70 years ahead...

01:30:01.550 --> 01:30:03.790
George - That is one possible future,

01:30:03.790 --> 01:30:06.430
where this becomes so routine that, at

01:30:06.430 --> 01:30:09.050
birth, everyone gets a profile that goes

01:30:09.050 --> 01:30:11.200
right to their medical record, one copy

01:30:11.200 --> 01:30:13.640
goes to the FBI, so we have an 
identification

01:30:13.640 --> 01:30:17.150
system for all possible crimes in the US.

01:30:17.150 --> 01:30:19.980
One copy goes to your grade school,

01:30:19.980 --> 01:30:22.390
to the high school, to the college, to the

01:30:22.390 --> 01:30:25.720
employer, the military. Like a horrific

01:30:25.720 --> 01:30:28.220
future, although, I have to say there are

01:30:28.220 --> 01:30:30.410
many in the Biotech industry and the

01:30:30.410 --> 01:30:32.210
medical professions that think that's

01:30:32.210 --> 01:30:34.370
a terrific future.

01:30:34.370 --> 01:30:36.450
(Narrator) In fact, a lot of the 
technology

01:30:36.450 --> 01:30:40.450
already exists now, today.

01:30:40.450 --> 01:30:42.560
These guys in the funny suits are making

01:30:42.560 --> 01:30:46.030
"gene chips". The little needles are

01:30:46.030 --> 01:30:49.020
dropping tiny, nearly invisible, bits of

01:30:49.020 --> 01:30:53.320
DNA onto glass slides. And where do the

01:30:53.320 --> 01:30:56.540
DNA come from? From babies. Thousands

01:30:56.540 --> 01:31:02.180
of them. Each chip can support 80,000 DNA
tests.

01:31:03.738 --> 01:31:05.428
Mark Schena - So, a single chip, in

01:31:05.428 --> 01:31:08.048
principle, will allow you to test, say,

01:31:08.048 --> 01:31:11.128
1,000 babies for 80 different human

01:31:11.128 --> 01:31:13.788
diseases. So, within a few minutes, you

01:31:13.788 --> 01:31:15.908
can have a readout for thousands, or even

01:31:15.908 --> 01:31:19.548
tens-of-thousands of babies in a single
experiment.

01:31:19.548 --> 01:31:21.628
(Narrator) Already, babies are routinely

01:31:21.628 --> 01:31:23.838
tested for a handful of diseases, but with

01:31:23.838 --> 01:31:26.318
gene chips, everybody could be tested for

01:31:26.318 --> 01:31:29.188
hundreds of conditions.

01:31:29.188 --> 01:31:31.168
Mark - Knowing is great. Knowing early is

01:31:31.168 --> 01:31:35.168
even better. And that's really what the
technology allows us to do.

01:31:36.023 --> 01:31:38.083
(Narrator) Well, taking a test and knowing

01:31:38.083 --> 01:31:40.293
is great for the baby, anybody really,

01:31:40.293 --> 01:31:42.293
as long as there's something you can do

01:31:42.293 --> 01:31:43.613
about it.

01:31:43.613 --> 01:31:45.533
Narrator - But think about this, because

01:31:45.533 --> 01:31:48.453
sometimes there may be a test, but it

01:31:48.453 --> 01:31:53.473
might take 20 years, or 50 years, 50 years

01:31:53.473 --> 01:31:55.843
to find a cure. So, you could take the

01:31:55.843 --> 01:31:57.933
tests, and you could learn that there is

01:31:57.933 --> 01:32:00.053
a disease coming your way, but you can't

01:32:00.053 --> 01:32:02.643
do a thing about it. Do you still wanna

01:32:02.643 --> 01:32:05.133
know? Or, you could take the test, but

01:32:05.133 --> 01:32:07.693
the test won't say that you're going to

01:32:07.693 --> 01:32:10.083
get the disease. It will simply say that

01:32:10.083 --> 01:32:14.083
you may get a disease. And, as you know,

01:32:14.083 --> 01:32:15.843
there is a big difference between

01:32:15.843 --> 01:32:19.843
"you will" and "you may".

01:32:19.843 --> 01:32:23.303
(women talking in distance)

01:32:23.303 --> 01:32:25.343
(Narrator) Lisa Capos and Lori Segal are

01:32:25.343 --> 01:32:27.283
sisters who shared the wrenching

01:32:27.283 --> 01:32:31.003
experience of cancer in the family. Way

01:32:31.003 --> 01:32:34.033
back, there was three sisters in 1979.

01:32:34.033 --> 01:32:36.133
The youngest of the three, Melanie, was

01:32:36.133 --> 01:32:39.133
diagnosed with ovarian cancer.

01:32:39.133 --> 01:32:41.263
(Lisa) When my sister was diagnosed, my

01:32:41.263 --> 01:32:44.383
response was disbelief. She was

01:32:44.383 --> 01:32:48.543
Lisa - 30 years old, and I'd never known

01:32:48.543 --> 01:32:52.543
anybody of that age to have ovarian
cancer.

01:32:52.543 --> 01:32:54.323
(Narrator) Melanie fought her cancer

01:32:54.323 --> 01:32:58.713
for four years, but died in 1983.

01:32:58.713 --> 01:33:01.023
It seemed an isolated piece of bad luck,

01:33:01.023 --> 01:33:03.643
but then, just about a year later, Lisa

01:33:03.643 --> 01:33:06.933
discovered that she had breast cancer.

01:33:06.933 --> 01:33:09.793
She was only 34, but the cancer hadn't

01:33:09.793 --> 01:33:12.013
spread, so the long-term outlook seemed

01:33:12.013 --> 01:33:14.673
optimistic.

01:33:14.673 --> 01:33:16.313
Lisa - I actually had a radiation

01:33:16.313 --> 01:33:20.313
therapist, who was, tops in the field.

01:33:20.313 --> 01:33:24.213
Wrote many books on breast cancer, and

01:33:24.213 --> 01:33:27.923
was very optimistic. And what I remember

01:33:27.923 --> 01:33:30.443
him saying was that he and I would grow

01:33:30.443 --> 01:33:32.783
old together.

01:33:32.783 --> 01:33:35.903
(Narrator) And Lisa was fine for 12 years,

01:33:35.903 --> 01:33:37.823
and then she found another lump in the

01:33:37.823 --> 01:33:39.663
same breast.

01:33:39.663 --> 01:33:43.663
Lisa - It was the worst fear come true.

01:33:43.663 --> 01:33:47.963
The first time I could hold onto hope,

01:33:47.963 --> 01:33:49.963
the second time nobody was talking

01:33:49.963 --> 01:33:53.963
with me about living to be old.

01:33:53.963 --> 01:33:55.683
(Narrator) When Lisa discovered her

01:33:55.683 --> 01:33:58.523
second cancer in 1996, scientists were

01:33:58.523 --> 01:34:00.403
just beginning to work out the link

01:34:00.403 --> 01:34:02.433
between breast and ovarian cancers

01:34:02.433 --> 01:34:04.043
that run in families.

01:34:05.453 --> 01:34:07.773
Mary Claire King was one of the scientists

01:34:07.773 --> 01:34:09.753
who discovered the changes, or mutations

01:34:09.753 --> 01:34:12.433
in two specific genes make a woman's

01:34:12.433 --> 01:34:14.593
risk of breast and ovarian cancer much

01:34:14.593 --> 01:34:18.363
higher. The genes are called, "BRCA-1" and

01:34:18.363 --> 01:34:20.523
"BRCA-2"

01:34:20.523 --> 01:34:23.193
Mary - BRCA-1 and BRCA-2 are perfectly

01:34:23.193 --> 01:34:26.853
healthy, normal genes that all of us have.

01:34:26.853 --> 01:34:28.983
But in a few families, mutations in these

01:34:28.983 --> 01:34:32.503
genes are inherited.

01:34:32.503 --> 01:34:34.723
(Narrator) - So, in a normal gene, we're

01:34:34.723 --> 01:34:36.793
gonna spell it out for you here, letter by

01:34:36.793 --> 01:34:38.673
letter, this is the normal sequence

01:34:38.673 --> 01:34:46.543
ending, "GTAGCAGT". Now, we're gonna make

01:34:46.543 --> 01:34:50.983
a copy. Now, we're gonna lose two of the

01:34:50.983 --> 01:34:53.723
letters, just two, and then see, watch

01:34:53.723 --> 01:34:55.883
them shift over. You see that? This new

01:34:55.883 --> 01:34:58.063
configuration is a mutation which can

01:34:58.063 --> 01:35:00.663
often cause breast cancer.

01:35:00.663 --> 01:35:02.773
Mary - In the United States and Western

01:35:02.773 --> 01:35:05.803
Europe, and Canada, the risk of developing

01:35:05.803 --> 01:35:07.893
breast cancer for women in the population

01:35:07.893 --> 01:35:11.133
as a whole, is about 10% over the course

01:35:11.133 --> 01:35:13.223
of her lifetime. With, of course, most of

01:35:13.223 --> 01:35:15.623
that risk occurring later in her life.

01:35:15.623 --> 01:35:18.013
For a woman with a mutation in BRCA-1 or

01:35:18.013 --> 01:35:20.633
BRCA-2, the lifetime risk of breast cancer

01:35:20.633 --> 01:35:24.633
is about 80%. It's very high.

01:35:25.020 --> 01:35:27.200
(Narrator) Right around the time of Lisa's

01:35:27.200 --> 01:35:29.420
second bout of breast cancer, a test for

01:35:29.420 --> 01:35:32.660
BRCA mutations became available. Lisa and

01:35:32.660 --> 01:35:36.250
her sister, Lori, decided to be tested.

01:35:36.250 --> 01:35:38.510
(Lori) I do remember the day that I went

01:35:38.510 --> 01:35:41.190
to find out the results.

01:35:41.190 --> 01:35:44.410
Lori - Panic, terror. I mean, what was I

01:35:44.410 --> 01:35:50.830
gonna find out? Talking about the blood

01:35:50.830 --> 01:35:52.810
surging through your temples, I mean

01:35:52.810 --> 01:35:56.810
I just remember sheer terror.

01:35:56.810 --> 01:35:59.530
(Narrator) Turns out, Lori was fine, but

01:35:59.530 --> 01:36:02.110
Lisa discovered that she does carry a

01:36:02.110 --> 01:36:06.890
BRCA mutation. It is not easy waking

01:36:06.890 --> 01:36:08.990
up every morning, wondering if today's

01:36:08.990 --> 01:36:11.390
the day you may get sick.

01:36:11.390 --> 01:36:13.550
(Doctor) Any questions about the results

01:36:13.550 --> 01:36:16.190
from the biopsy from April?

01:36:16.190 --> 01:36:19.080
Lisa - No questions about the results,

01:36:19.080 --> 01:36:21.120
again it feels like often my life is

01:36:21.120 --> 01:36:23.720
dodging bullets...

01:36:24.627 --> 01:36:26.557
(Narrator) With the second cancer, Lisa

01:36:26.557 --> 01:36:29.027
had her right breast completely removed.

01:36:29.027 --> 01:36:31.137
And then another operation to take out her

01:36:31.137 --> 01:36:32.997
ovaries.

01:36:32.997 --> 01:36:35.137
(Nurse) Just make a tight fist until I'm 
in.

01:36:35.137 --> 01:36:40.167
(Narrator) She also has a high risk of
cancer in her left breast. BRCA mutations

01:36:40.167 --> 01:36:42.627
are relatively rare, and only cause maybe

01:36:42.627 --> 01:36:45.957
only 5 or 10% of all breast cancer.

01:36:45.957 --> 01:36:48.487
But knowing that there's a BRCA mutation

01:36:48.487 --> 01:36:52.087
in the family affects everybody.

01:36:52.087 --> 01:36:54.697
(Man) The gene doesn't go away. The time

01:36:54.697 --> 01:36:57.477
passed since the last cancer doesn't buy

01:36:57.477 --> 01:36:59.137
you the safety.

01:36:59.137 --> 01:37:02.627
Man - And, the consequences run through

01:37:02.627 --> 01:37:07.867
the family. And, I suppose, that, for my

01:37:07.867 --> 01:37:11.207
daughter, who yet has not shown any

01:37:11.207 --> 01:37:18.837
significant impact of this. The knowledge

01:37:18.837 --> 01:37:20.817
that there's a genetic component that she

01:37:20.817 --> 01:37:26.017
can't deny. Will, I'm sure, color her life

01:37:26.017 --> 01:37:29.467
in serious ways.

01:37:29.467 --> 01:37:31.927
(Narrator) Lisa's son, Justin, is 21. Her

01:37:31.927 --> 01:37:35.927
daughter, Alana is 18. There is a 50/50

01:37:35.927 --> 01:37:37.987
chance that each of them has inherited

01:37:37.987 --> 01:37:41.177
the BRCA mutation from Lisa. The only way

01:37:41.177 --> 01:37:44.057
to know, would be to take a test.

01:37:44.057 --> 01:37:46.967
And when should they do that? When is the

01:37:46.967 --> 01:37:48.847
right time?

01:37:48.847 --> 01:37:52.667
Alana - I actually never really thought
about it until biology this year, when my

01:37:52.667 --> 01:37:56.667
teacher posed a hypothetical, supposedly,
question to people saying, "What would

01:37:56.667 --> 01:38:00.417
you do? Can you imagine what you would
do if you were faced with a situation

01:38:00.417 --> 01:38:05.717
where you knew that you might have this
disease that would be deadly, or cause

01:38:05.717 --> 01:38:08.217
you to be sick? And you could do a test

01:38:08.217 --> 01:38:10.527
to find out whether or not you had it."

01:38:10.527 --> 01:38:12.847
And I was sitting there in class saying,

01:38:12.847 --> 01:38:15.237
"Maybe it's not so hypothetical."

01:38:15.237 --> 01:38:19.237
(Narrator) And then in her senior year of
highschool, Alana felt a lump in her own

01:38:19.237 --> 01:38:20.597
breast.

01:38:20.597 --> 01:38:24.597
(Alana) I did have the, "Oh, it can't be
happening to me. Not yet." kind of thing.

01:38:24.597 --> 01:38:26.607
I mean, I have the reservation in the

01:38:26.607 --> 01:38:29.567
back of my mind
Alana - that eventually it may very well

01:38:29.567 --> 01:38:32.207
happen to me. And, if it does, I'll fight

01:38:32.207 --> 01:38:34.487
it then. I'll deal with it then, but I

01:38:34.487 --> 01:38:36.917
don't expect, or I definitely didn't

01:38:36.917 --> 01:38:38.917
expect for this to be happening to me

01:38:38.917 --> 01:38:42.917
when I was 17 years old.

01:38:44.134 --> 01:38:46.694
(Narrator) Alana's lump was not cancer.

01:38:46.694 --> 01:38:48.774
And for now, she doesn't want the test.

01:38:48.774 --> 01:38:50.794
Because, if she knew that she had the bad

01:38:50.794 --> 01:38:52.954
gene, she'd only have two options:

01:38:52.954 --> 01:38:54.914
The choice of removing her breasts and

01:38:54.914 --> 01:38:57.334
ovaries to try to reduce her risk. Or just

01:38:57.334 --> 01:39:01.334
to be closely monitored, and wait.

01:39:01.334 --> 01:39:04.164
Lisa - She's followed every year. Seems

01:39:04.164 --> 01:39:08.624
a little young to, ya know, have her have

01:39:08.624 --> 01:39:10.734
to face that. On the other hand, it also

01:39:10.734 --> 01:39:12.704
feels like the belt-and-suspenders

01:39:12.704 --> 01:39:14.984
technique, and we just have to do

01:39:14.984 --> 01:39:18.594
everything we can do.

01:39:18.594 --> 01:39:20.404
(Narrator) In the next 20 years, this

01:39:20.404 --> 01:39:23.834
family's predicament will become more
and more common as more and more

01:39:23.834 --> 01:39:27.834
genes are linked to more and more diseases
and more tests become available. But we

01:39:27.834 --> 01:39:32.274
will all have to ask, "Do we want to 
know?"

01:39:32.274 --> 01:39:34.854
And, when we know, can we live with an

01:39:34.854 --> 01:39:40.384
answer that says, "Maybe... but maybe
not?"

01:39:40.384 --> 01:39:42.544
(Lisa) Driving home from work today, I was

01:39:42.544 --> 01:39:45.504
tuned into public radio. And there was a

01:39:45.504 --> 01:39:47.904
professor of astronomy talking about a

01:39:47.904 --> 01:39:49.884
brand new telescope to look into the

01:39:49.884 --> 01:39:53.324
galaxies. And they're calling it the

01:39:53.324 --> 01:39:57.324
equivalent of The Human Genome Project.

01:39:57.324 --> 01:39:59.964
And I was thinking, "Hmm, not quite the

01:39:59.964 --> 01:40:01.924
equivalent of The Human Genome Project."

01:40:01.924 --> 01:40:05.284
because it's without some of the ethical,

01:40:05.284 --> 01:40:09.924
moral angst, real-people issues, where,

01:40:09.924 --> 01:40:11.984
it's a bit of a roller-coaster ride

01:40:11.984 --> 01:40:14.724
between, ya know, this is gonna hold

01:40:14.724 --> 01:40:16.774
answers, and hope, and treatments,

01:40:16.774 --> 01:40:20.774
and interventions, and cure versus - it's

01:40:20.774 --> 01:40:24.774
not clear what this all means.

01:40:27.419 --> 01:40:29.739
(Narrator) And if things aren't clear now,

01:40:29.739 --> 01:40:31.579
what about the future when we may not

01:40:31.579 --> 01:40:35.219
only cure disease but do so much more.

01:40:35.219 --> 01:40:39.219
(Doctor) Your extracted eggs are, Marie,

01:40:39.219 --> 01:40:44.819
have been fertilized with Antonio's sperm.

01:40:44.819 --> 01:40:47.549
You have specified Hazel eyes, dark hair,

01:40:47.549 --> 01:40:51.139
and fair skin. All that remains is to

01:40:51.139 --> 01:40:54.549
select the most compatible candidate.

01:40:54.549 --> 01:40:56.549
I've taken the liberty of eradicating any

01:40:56.549 --> 01:41:00.729
potentially prejudicial condition.
Premature baldness, myopia, alcoholism,

01:41:00.729 --> 01:41:03.409
obesity, and so...
Woman - We didn't want... I mean...

01:41:03.409 --> 01:41:06.619
diseases, yes, but um..
Man - Right, we were just wondering

01:41:06.619 --> 01:41:08.699
if, if it's good to just leave a few

01:41:08.699 --> 01:41:11.429
things to chance.
Doctor - We want to give your child the

01:41:11.429 --> 01:41:13.619
best possible start.

01:41:13.619 --> 01:41:16.139
Keep in mind, this child is still you.

01:41:16.139 --> 01:41:19.109
Simply the best of you. You could

01:41:19.109 --> 01:41:21.249
conceive naturally a thousand times and

01:41:21.249 --> 01:41:24.409
never get such a result.

01:41:24.409 --> 01:41:26.169
(Francis) GATTACA really raised some

01:41:26.169 --> 01:41:28.409
interesting points. The technology that's

01:41:28.409 --> 01:41:30.989
being described there is, in fact, right

01:41:30.989 --> 01:41:33.839
in front of us or almost in front of us.

01:41:33.839 --> 01:41:35.499
Narrator - That seems to me almost

01:41:35.499 --> 01:41:37.429
extremely likely to happen. Cause, what

01:41:37.429 --> 01:41:40.009
parent wouldn't want.. ya know, to

01:41:40.009 --> 01:41:41.769
introduce a child that wouldn't have,

01:41:41.769 --> 01:41:43.569
at least, be where all the other kids

01:41:43.569 --> 01:41:44.429
could be?

01:41:44.429 --> 01:41:48.229
Francis - That's why this scenario is
chilling. It portrayed a society where

01:41:48.229 --> 01:41:50.879
genetic determinism had basically run

01:41:50.879 --> 01:41:53.839
wild. I think society, in general, has

01:41:53.839 --> 01:41:55.839
smiled upon the use of genetics for

01:41:55.839 --> 01:41:57.909
preventing terrible diseases. But, when

01:41:57.909 --> 01:41:59.969
you begin to blur that boundary of making

01:41:59.969 --> 01:42:02.329
your kids genetically different, in a way

01:42:02.329 --> 01:42:04.629
that enhances their performance in some

01:42:04.629 --> 01:42:08.629
way, that starts to make most of us 
uneasy.

01:42:09.872 --> 01:42:11.842
(Narrator) What if we lived in the world

01:42:11.842 --> 01:42:15.842
of Star Trek Voyager? Talk about uneasy.

01:42:16.263 --> 01:42:18.783
Actress - Computer, access Belana Toras'

01:42:18.783 --> 01:42:19.903
medical file.

01:42:19.903 --> 01:42:22.123
(Narrator) Lieutenant Toras is 50% human

01:42:22.123 --> 01:42:25.203
and 50% Klingon.
Actress - Project a holographic image of

01:42:25.203 --> 01:42:29.203
the baby.
(Narrator) She's also 100% pregnant.

01:42:29.715 --> 01:42:32.105
Actress - Now extrapolate what the child's

01:42:32.105 --> 01:42:35.625
facial features will look like at 12 years
old.

01:42:35.625 --> 01:42:37.465
(Narrator) Like any caring parent, she

01:42:37.465 --> 01:42:39.655
doesn't want her child to be teased. For

01:42:39.655 --> 01:42:42.545
having a forehead that looks like... well,

01:42:42.545 --> 01:42:45.385
like a tire tread.
Actress - Display the fetus genome.

01:42:45.385 --> 01:42:49.385
Delete the following gene sequences.
(Narrator) But here's the twist...

01:42:49.385 --> 01:42:51.935
She can do something about it.

01:42:51.935 --> 01:42:53.685
Actress - Extrapolate what the child

01:42:53.685 --> 01:42:57.685
would look like with those genetic
changes.

01:42:57.685 --> 01:43:00.305
(Narrator) Hmm, she threw in some blonde
(music playing)

01:43:00.305 --> 01:43:03.375
hair, too.


01:43:03.375 --> 01:43:05.595
And is this limit? Or, could we go even

01:43:05.595 --> 01:43:08.615
further?
Actress - Save changes.

01:43:08.615 --> 01:43:10.935
Narrator - If you can eventually isolate

01:43:10.935 --> 01:43:14.055
all of these things, can you then build a

01:43:14.055 --> 01:43:17.475
creature that has never existed before?

01:43:17.475 --> 01:43:20.155
For example, I would like the eyesight of

01:43:20.155 --> 01:43:22.535
a hawk. And I'd like the hearing of a dog.

01:43:22.535 --> 01:43:24.455
Otherwise, I'm quite content exactly how

01:43:24.455 --> 01:43:27.425
I am. So, could I pluck the eyesight and

01:43:27.425 --> 01:43:30.135
the hearing and patch it in?

01:43:30.135 --> 01:43:32.065
Eric - Well, we don't know. We really

01:43:32.065 --> 01:43:36.065
don't know how that engineering occurs

01:43:36.065 --> 01:43:37.825
and how we can improve on it. It'd be

01:43:37.825 --> 01:43:40.585
very much like getting a pile of parts to

01:43:40.585 --> 01:43:43.865
a Boeing 777, and a whole pile of parts

01:43:43.865 --> 01:43:46.575
to an Airbus, and saying, "Well, I'm gonna

01:43:46.575 --> 01:43:48.375
mix and match some of these, so it'll

01:43:48.375 --> 01:43:52.235
have some of the properties... I'll make
it a little fatter, but I also wanna make

01:43:52.235 --> 01:43:55.975
it a little shorter." By the time you were
done, you'd think you'd made lots of

01:43:55.975 --> 01:43:59.735
clever improvements, but the thing
wouldn't get off the ground. It's a very

01:43:59.735 --> 01:44:02.095
complex machine, and going in with a

01:44:02.095 --> 01:44:04.935
monkey wrench to change a piece, odds

01:44:04.935 --> 01:44:06.985
are, most changes we would make today,

01:44:06.985 --> 01:44:10.985
almost ALL changes we'd make today would
break the machine.

01:44:10.985 --> 01:44:14.845
(Narrator) We may not be able to
genetically modify humans or klingons,

01:44:14.845 --> 01:44:17.825
yet. But we do do it to plants and animals

01:44:17.825 --> 01:44:20.175
everyday. Look at this stuff, tobacco

01:44:20.175 --> 01:44:23.415
plants with a gene from a firefly. And

01:44:23.415 --> 01:44:25.965
they use that same insect gene to create

01:44:25.965 --> 01:44:27.845
glowing mice.

01:44:27.845 --> 01:44:29.925
Narrator - So, it's theoretically possible

01:44:29.925 --> 01:44:32.115
that we could create humans with other

01:44:32.115 --> 01:44:34.015
advantages that borrowed from other

01:44:34.015 --> 01:44:36.425
creatures?
Eric - That's right, but the humility of

01:44:36.425 --> 01:44:40.365
science right now is to appreciate how
little we know about how you could

01:44:40.365 --> 01:44:43.125
even begin to go about that. That is the

01:44:43.125 --> 01:44:45.155
difference between 20th century and

01:44:45.155 --> 01:44:48.345
21st century biology, is, it's now our job

01:44:48.345 --> 01:44:50.465
in this century to figure out how the

01:44:50.465 --> 01:44:54.465
parts fit together.
(music playing)

01:44:55.723 --> 01:44:57.763
(Narrator) And just as the 20th century

01:44:57.763 --> 01:45:00.163
was winding down, the race to finish the

01:45:00.163 --> 01:45:02.863
genome was full throttle. The competitive

01:45:02.863 --> 01:45:05.973
juices were flowing.

01:45:05.973 --> 01:45:09.973
Venter - I am competitive, but, when the

01:45:09.973 --> 01:45:12.023
social order doesn't allow you to make

01:45:12.023 --> 01:45:15.443
progress, and it doesn't for most people,

01:45:15.443 --> 01:45:17.903
I said, "To hell with the social order,

01:45:17.903 --> 01:45:20.673
I'll find a new way to do it."

01:45:20.673 --> 01:45:22.713
(Tony White) It changed the paradigm on

01:45:22.713 --> 01:45:25.343
people, and people don't like that.

01:45:25.343 --> 01:45:27.143
Tony - It was very offensive to these

01:45:27.143 --> 01:45:28.823
people. "How dare they?" Ya know,

01:45:28.823 --> 01:45:31.323
rain on our parade, this is our turf.

01:45:31.323 --> 01:45:35.603
Eric - This was a challenge to the whole
idea of public generation of data. That's

01:45:35.603 --> 01:45:38.693
what offended people, was that we really

01:45:38.693 --> 01:45:40.933
felt deeply that these were data that had

01:45:40.933 --> 01:45:42.933
to be available for everybody. And there

01:45:42.933 --> 01:45:44.623
was an attempt to claim the public

01:45:44.623 --> 01:45:47.063
imagination for the proposition that

01:45:47.063 --> 01:45:49.143
these data were better done in some

01:45:49.143 --> 01:45:51.043
private fashion and owned.

01:45:51.043 --> 01:45:54.853
Tony - You wanna say, "Well, wait a
minute. Ya know, if you could do it in

01:45:54.853 --> 01:45:58.273
two years, why weren't ya doing it in
two years? Why do we have to come

01:45:58.273 --> 01:46:01.133
along to turn a 15 year project into a
two year project?"

01:46:01.133 --> 01:46:04.833
Eric - I must say that The Human Genome
Project had a tremendous amount of

01:46:04.833 --> 01:46:08.833
internal competition, even amongst the
academic groups. There's competition

01:46:08.833 --> 01:46:11.333
amongst academic scientists, to be sure.

01:46:11.333 --> 01:46:13.233
And more than anything, there's

01:46:13.233 --> 01:46:16.893
competition against disease. There's a

01:46:16.893 --> 01:46:19.513
strong sense that what we're trying

01:46:19.513 --> 01:46:21.453
to find out is the most important

01:46:21.453 --> 01:46:24.653
information that you could possibly get.

01:46:24.653 --> 01:46:27.833
Tony - I don't know, I mean, I hope that
this will all go away.

01:46:27.833 --> 01:46:31.023
(Narrator) In June of 2000, it kind of did

01:46:31.023 --> 01:46:35.023
go away.
(orchestral music playing)

01:46:39.474 --> 01:46:41.754
The contentious race to finish the genome

01:46:41.754 --> 01:46:44.494
came to an end.
(Announcer) Ladies and gentlemen, the

01:46:44.494 --> 01:46:47.374
President of the United States.

01:46:47.374 --> 01:46:50.254
(Narrator) And the winner was...

01:46:50.254 --> 01:46:52.414
Well, you probably heard, they decided

01:46:52.414 --> 01:46:54.544
to call it a tie.

01:46:54.544 --> 01:46:56.454
(Francis) I think both Craig and I were

01:46:56.454 --> 01:46:59.154
really tired of the way in which the

01:46:59.154 --> 01:47:02.224
representations had played out and wanted

01:47:02.224 --> 01:47:05.904
to see that sort of put behind us. It was

01:47:05.904 --> 01:47:08.554
probably not good for Celera, as a

01:47:08.554 --> 01:47:11.474
business to have this image of being

01:47:11.474 --> 01:47:13.444
sort of always in contention with the

01:47:13.444 --> 01:47:15.364
public project. It certainly wasn't good

01:47:15.364 --> 01:47:17.304
for the public project to be seen as

01:47:17.304 --> 01:47:20.644
battling with the private sector
enterprise.

01:47:21.647 --> 01:47:23.577
(Narrator) President Clinton, himself,

01:47:23.577 --> 01:47:25.987
got the public guys and the Celera guys

01:47:25.987 --> 01:47:28.667
to play nice, shake hands, and share

01:47:28.667 --> 01:47:32.667
credit for sequencing the genome.
(clapping)

01:47:36.503 --> 01:47:38.423
President Clinton - Nearly two centuries

01:47:38.423 --> 01:47:44.723
ago, in this room, on this floor, Thomas

01:47:44.723 --> 01:47:47.943
Jefferson and a trusted aid spread out a

01:47:47.943 --> 01:47:51.683
magnificent map. The aid was Merryweather

01:47:51.683 --> 01:47:54.093
Louis and the map was the product of his

01:47:54.093 --> 01:47:57.033
courageous expedition across the American

01:47:57.033 --> 01:48:00.813
frontier, all the way to the Pacific.

01:48:00.813 --> 01:48:03.223
Today, the world is joining us here in the

01:48:03.223 --> 01:48:06.053
East Room, to behold a map of even greater

01:48:06.053 --> 01:48:09.053
significance. We are here to celebrate the

01:48:09.053 --> 01:48:11.773
completion of the first survey of the

01:48:11.773 --> 01:48:14.673
entire human genome. Without a doubt,

01:48:14.673 --> 01:48:16.593
this is the most important, most

01:48:16.593 --> 01:48:20.593
wondrous map ever produced by humankind.

01:48:21.667 --> 01:48:23.427
(Narrator) And what does this map the

01:48:23.427 --> 01:48:25.367
President is talking about, what does it

01:48:25.367 --> 01:48:26.237
look like?

01:48:26.237 --> 01:48:27.927
Narrator - When we look across the

01:48:27.927 --> 01:48:30.137
landscape of our DNA for the 30,000 genes

01:48:30.137 --> 01:48:32.597
that make up a human-being, what do we

01:48:32.597 --> 01:48:33.587
see?

01:48:33.587 --> 01:48:36.747
Eric - The genome is very lumpy.
Narrator - Very lumpy?

01:48:36.747 --> 01:48:39.507
Eric - Very lumpy, very uneven. You might

01:48:39.507 --> 01:48:41.617
think if we have 30,000 genes they're

01:48:41.617 --> 01:48:43.537
distributed kind of uniformly across the

01:48:43.537 --> 01:48:46.017
chromosomes. Not so.

01:48:46.017 --> 01:48:48.317
(music playing)

01:48:48.317 --> 01:48:50.347
(Eric) They're distributed like people are

01:48:50.347 --> 01:48:53.307
distributed in America. They're all

01:48:53.307 --> 01:48:55.867
bunched up in some places, and then you

01:48:55.867 --> 01:48:58.077
have vast plains that don't have a lot of

01:48:58.077 --> 01:49:00.597
people in them.
(car horn honking)

01:49:00.597 --> 01:49:04.217
It's like that with the genes.

01:49:04.217 --> 01:49:05.977
(music playing)

01:49:05.977 --> 01:49:08.517
(Eric) There are really gene-dense regions

01:49:08.517 --> 01:49:11.077
that might have 15 times the density of

01:49:11.077 --> 01:49:15.077
genes. Sort of a New York City over here.

01:49:15.077 --> 01:49:19.077
(music playing)

01:49:19.813 --> 01:49:21.593
(Eric) And there are other regions that

01:49:21.593 --> 01:49:23.913
might go for two-million letters, and

01:49:23.913 --> 01:49:27.913
there's not a gene to be found in there.

01:49:29.732 --> 01:49:31.442
Eric - The remarkable thing about our

01:49:31.442 --> 01:49:33.242
genome, is how little "gene" there is

01:49:33.242 --> 01:49:35.312
in it. We have three billion letters of

01:49:35.312 --> 01:49:38.822
DNA, but only 1 to 1.5% of it is gene.

01:49:38.822 --> 01:49:40.862
Narrator - 1.5%?

01:49:40.862 --> 01:49:44.682
Eric - The rest of it, 99% of it, is
stuff.

01:49:44.682 --> 01:49:46.582
Narrator - Stuff? This is the technical
term?

01:49:46.582 --> 01:49:48.662
Eric - A technical term. More than half

01:49:48.662 --> 01:49:53.132
of your total DNA is not really yours. It

01:49:53.132 --> 01:49:57.572
consists of selfish DNA elements that

01:49:57.572 --> 01:49:59.812
somehow got into our genomes about

01:49:59.812 --> 01:50:02.132
a billion-and-a-half years ago, and have

01:50:02.132 --> 01:50:04.012
been hopping around making copies of

01:50:04.012 --> 01:50:06.422
themselves. To those selfish DNA elements,

01:50:06.422 --> 01:50:10.482
we're merely a host for them.
Narrator - Wait a second...

01:50:10.482 --> 01:50:12.512
Eric - They view the human being just as a

01:50:12.512 --> 01:50:15.722
vehicle for transmitting themselves.
Narrator - Wait, wait, wait...

01:50:15.722 --> 01:50:19.192
We have, in each and every one of our
cells that carry DNA, we have these

01:50:19.192 --> 01:50:21.862
little... they're not beings, they're just

01:50:21.862 --> 01:50:24.422
hitchhikers...
Eric - Yeah.

01:50:24.422 --> 01:50:26.312
Hitchhiking hunks of DNA.

01:50:26.312 --> 01:50:28.532
Narrator - And they've been in us for how
long?

01:50:28.532 --> 01:50:30.652
Eric - About a billion or a half years
or so.

01:50:30.652 --> 01:50:34.572
Narrator - And all they've done, as far as
you can say, is stay there and multiply?

01:50:34.572 --> 01:50:36.052
Eric - Well, they move around.

01:50:36.052 --> 01:50:37.772
Narrator - And what is that? What do

01:50:37.772 --> 01:50:39.812
you call that? I mean, it's not an animal,

01:50:39.812 --> 01:50:42.202
it's not a vegetable. It's just...

01:50:42.202 --> 01:50:44.212
Eric - It's a gene that knows how to look

01:50:44.212 --> 01:50:46.192
out for itself and nothing else.

01:50:46.192 --> 01:50:48.332
Narrator - And it's just riding around
in us?

01:50:48.332 --> 01:50:52.152
The majority of our genome is this stuff,

01:50:52.152 --> 01:50:54.122
not us.
Narrator - Wow.

01:50:54.122 --> 01:50:56.442
(music playing)

01:50:56.442 --> 01:50:58.212
(Narrator) It is a little humbling to

01:50:58.212 --> 01:51:02.192
think that we, the paragon of animals,

01:51:02.192 --> 01:51:05.322
the architects of great civilizations,

01:51:05.322 --> 01:51:07.422
are used as taxi cabs by a bunch of

01:51:07.422 --> 01:51:09.422
freeloading parasites who could care

01:51:09.422 --> 01:51:12.422
less about us, but, that's the mystery of

01:51:12.422 --> 01:51:16.422
it all.
(lightning)

01:51:16.422 --> 01:51:20.422
(music playing)

01:51:24.704 --> 01:51:26.604
(Eric) - You come away from reading the

01:51:26.604 --> 01:51:28.674
genome, recognizing that we are so

01:51:28.674 --> 01:51:31.434
similar to every other living thing on

01:51:31.434 --> 01:51:32.974
this planet.

01:51:32.974 --> 01:51:36.974
(music playing)

01:51:40.198 --> 01:51:42.648
(birds chirping)

01:51:44.051 --> 01:51:46.731
(Eric) And every innovation in us... we

01:51:46.731 --> 01:51:49.091
didn't really invent it. These were all

01:51:49.091 --> 01:51:51.651
things inherited from our ancestors.

01:51:51.651 --> 01:51:55.651
(music playing)

01:51:57.331 --> 01:51:59.831
(Eric) This gives you a tremendous

01:51:59.831 --> 01:52:03.181
respect for life. It gives you a respect

01:52:03.181 --> 01:52:06.261
for the complexity of life, the innovation

01:52:06.261 --> 01:52:10.261
of life. And the tremendous connectivity

01:52:10.261 --> 01:52:13.171
amongst all life on the planet.

01:52:13.171 --> 01:52:17.171
(music playing)

01:52:21.156 --> 01:52:23.756
(Narrator) We are, in a very real sense,

01:52:23.756 --> 01:52:26.996
ordinary creatures. Our parts are

01:52:26.996 --> 01:52:28.886
interchangeable with all the other

01:52:28.886 --> 01:52:31.996
animals, and even the plants around us.

01:52:31.996 --> 01:52:34.576
And yet, we know that there's something

01:52:34.576 --> 01:52:38.576
about us that is truly extraordinary.

01:52:40.368 --> 01:52:43.338
What it is, we don't know, but what it

01:52:43.338 --> 01:52:46.918
does is, it let's us ask questions and

01:52:46.918 --> 01:52:49.958
investigate, and contemplate the

01:52:49.958 --> 01:52:52.468
messages buried in a molecule shaped

01:52:52.468 --> 01:52:57.198
like a twisted staircase. That's what we,

01:52:57.198 --> 01:53:04.148
and maybe we alone, can do. We can wonder.

01:53:04.148 --> 01:53:08.148
(music playing)

01:53:10.101 --> 01:53:12.071
(Narrator) This program raises many

01:53:12.071 --> 01:53:13.951
difficult questions, and we do want to

01:53:13.951 --> 01:53:16.061
know what you think. So, please logon

01:53:16.061 --> 01:53:18.581
to Nova's website and take our survey.

01:53:18.581 --> 01:53:20.781
Also, you can see how scientists pinpoint

01:53:20.781 --> 01:53:23.511
a gene, find out how sequencing works,

01:53:23.511 --> 01:53:27.511
and more at PBS.org or AmericaOnline,

01:53:27.511 --> 01:53:30.391
keyword: PBS.

01:53:30.391 --> 01:53:34.391
(music playing)

01:53:35.847 --> 01:53:44.087
(music playing)

01:53:46.582 --> 01:53:48.522
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01:53:48.522 --> 01:53:50.972
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01:53:54.582 --> 01:53:58.912
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01:53:59.849 --> 01:54:02.809
By inserting just one gene, our food can

01:54:02.809 --> 01:54:06.509
grow bigger, resist disease, and feed the
world.

01:54:06.509 --> 01:54:08.049
(Man) This is a mass genetic

01:54:08.049 --> 01:54:10.789
experiment that's going on in our diet.

01:54:10.789 --> 01:54:12.759
(Announcer) Harvest of Fear, a NOVA

01:54:12.759 --> 01:54:15.299
frontline special report.

01:54:15.299 --> 01:54:19.299
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01:54:24.749 --> 01:54:28.749
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01:54:28.749 --> 01:54:32.749
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