Drawing the Map of Life
Inside the Human Genome Project
by Victor K. McElheny
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Drawing the Map of Life
On June 26, 2000, in the East Room of the White House, President Bill Clinton celebrated the “completion” of a most wondrous map—the DNA that makes up the human genome. In Drawing the Map of Life, Victor McElheny outlines the events that led up to that ceremony and chronicles the torrent of efforts over the next decade to fill in the rough draft of the genomic map and interpret it.
McElheny first profiles the creation of the techniques and tools that allowed the Human Genome Project to be born in 1989–90, including the invention of ever-faster and more efficient methods of gene sequencing. We read as Nobel laureate James Watson, erstwhile head of the initiative, yields the helm to Francis Collins, who took control of the National Center for Human Genome Research in 1993. The author also describes the brilliant, ambitious Craig Venter, whose private ventures, including Celera Genomics, served as a formidable rival to the government’s own project, and produced some of the quest’s most notable breakthroughs.
Yet mapping the genome (of humans along with myriad other species) was just the first step. All the genes and their controls would have to be catalogued, and the way they interacted to develop and operate a human being would have to be determined. In the second part of his book, McElheny shows how researchers have taken the first tentative steps toward reaching this goal, including the realization that most genes specify the structure of several proteins and the creation of specific classes of drugs, such as statins, based on genomic research.
Packed with original reporting and profiles of key players, Drawing the Map of Life offers a definitive account of one of today’s greatest scientific adventures.
Hardcover : 336 pages
Publisher: Basic Books Inc. ( July 01, 2010 )
Item #: 13-100475
ISBN: 9780465043330
Product Dimensions: 6.125 x 9.25 inches
Product Weight: 21.0 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
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