Human genome project a cause of friction

Article Abstract:

James Watson, the director of the US National Institutes of Health Center for Genome Research has suggested that countries which do not contribute financially to the human genome project should be denied access to the information that is acquired. The entire human genome, or DNA, will be sequenced so that the entire set of genes, which contain the information about the processes of life, can be ordered and identified. The Japanese have not contributed to the project and have expressed resentment at the pressure put on them by the US to join large projects that the US has backed, such as the Superconducting Super Collider and the Space Station projects. It is felt that Japan, being such a prosperous nation, should put more money into basic research. Under the current Japanese laws, the Japanese government cannot directly contribute to the project. Private donations are not readily given as they are not tax deductible. However the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture is looking into every possibility to raise money. Japan only needs to allot a few hundred thousand dollars a year to the project. Other governments are spending more than 10 million dollars a year on genome-related projects.

Political aspects, Watson, James D., Human genome

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Institute files for patents on first Japanese sequences

Article Abstract:

The Japanese institute, Sagami Chemical Research Centre, has broken with Japanese scientists' general policy and filed to patent 60 partial sequences of full-length human cDNA gene clones. However, the Centre is partially funded by patent royalties and so patents any patentable results. The Centre's leader Seishi Kato has developed a new technique enabling him to infer some characteristics of gene function using the full chromosome rather than synthesizing fragments as UK and US researchers have to do. Kato's equipment is on a smaller scale, reducing the number of potential patents.

Research institutes, DNA, Intellectual property

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Japan begins processing data for genome programme

Article Abstract:

The computational ability of the Human Genome Centre of Tokyo University's Institute of Medical Science and the Supercomputer Laboratory of Kyoto University has become available to outside users. These two centers and five others have become linked into a wide-area network called GenomeNet which, in turn, is linked to the Widely Integrated Distributed Environment (WIDE) network. WIDE also provides links to overseas networks.

Supercomputers, Human Genome Project

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