Mapping our Genes. Genome Projects: How Big, How Fast?

Abstract

Foreword For the past 2 years, scientific and technical journals in biology and medicine have extensively covered a debate about whether and how to determine the function and order of human genes on human chromosomes and when to determine the sequence of molecular building blocks that comprise DNA in those chromosomes. In 1987, these issues rose to become part of the public agenda. The debate involves science, technol-ogy, and politics. Congress is responsible for '(writing the rules " of what various Federal agencies do and for funding their work. This report surveys the points made so far in the debate, focusing on those that most directly influence the policy options facing the U.S. Congress, The House Committee on Energy and Commerce requested that OTA undertake the project. The House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, the Senate Com-mittee on Labor and Human Resources, and the Senate Committee on Energy and Natu-ral Resources also asked OTA to address specific points of concern to them. Congres-sional interest focused on several issues: q how to assess the rationales for conducting human genome projects, q how to fund human genome projects (at what level and through which mech-anisms), q how to coordinate the scientific and technical programs of the several Federal agencies and private interests already supporting various genome projects, and q how to strike a balance regarding the impact of genome projects on international scientific cooperation and international economic competition in biotechnology.