Genome Picked as 2000 'Breakthrough'
by
Paul Recer,
AP Science Writer

December 22, 2000; Washington, D.C. (AP) -- "New techniques in the form of better automated sequencers, as well as intense competition between public and private sequencing efforts, drove this acceleration," the journal said. The year saw the climax of a race to sequence the human genome. On one side was an international, government consortium headed by the National Human Genome Research Institute. On the other side was a private company, Celera Genomics of Rockville, MD.

At a White House ceremony in June, presided over by President Clinton, leaders of the public and private efforts made a joint announcement that a rough draft of the human genome had been completed ahead of schedule. "Today ... marks an historic point in the 100,000-year record of humanity," J. Craig Venter, head of Celera, told a White House audience.

Dr. Francis Collins, director of the government program, said mapping the human genetic pattern means "we have caught a glimpse of an instruction book previously known only to God." Researchers predicted that the achievement would lead to revolutionary ways to make new drugs and cure disease. The genetic pattern of a worm, a fruit fly, and a plant, all used in laboratory research, have been mapped, along with some five dozen microbes, the journal said. Nearing completion are genome maps for the mouse, rat, zebrafish, and two types of pufferfish.

As the runner-up breakthrough of the year, Science picked advances in understanding the action of ribonucleic acid, or RNA, within the protein factory of the cell, a structure called the ribosome. Science said these studies are showing researchers how proteins are assembled from amino acids within the cells, a key action in biology.

Other breakthroughs, which the journal said were selected "in no particular order," are as follows:

• • Discovery of a 1.7 million-year-old fossil in the Republic of Georgia supporting the theory that humans migrated into the rest of the world after evolving in Africa.
• • The development of plastics that conduct electricity. This is seen as step toward using cheap organic molecules to make components for computers, cell phones, lasers, and other electronic devices.
• • Studies showing that adult cells can be manipulated to transform into a variety of other types of cells, such as turning bone marrow into brain cells. Cell manipulation has also led to the first-ever cloning of pigs, the journal said.
• • The discovery by spacecraft orbiting Mars that the planet may once have been covered by water and that there may be frozen pools of water still there. Researchers believe the presence of water increases the possibility of life on the Red Planet.
• • Instruments carried aloft by balloons that have mapped the microwave afterglow of the " Big Bang," the immense explosion that is thought to have started the universe. The results strengthened the belief that the present universe is flat and, therefore, will expand forever.
• • Researchers' findings that signaling proteins within cells are implicated in cancer, heart disease, and diabetes. The work could lead to new drugs that would block the action of those proteins to treat disease.
• • NASA's NEAR Shoemaker Spacecraft, which became the first probe to slip into the orbit of an asteroid. The spacecraft has circled the 21-mile wide Eros asteroid for six months, unlocking chemical secrets of some of the most primitive material in the solar system.
• • Advances in the bizarre world of quantum research, which have led to discoveries of electrical fields and motions that may help develop new types of computers and electrical circuitry.

Science is one of the world's leading general science, peer-reviewed journals. It is published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
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On the Web: Science: www.eurekalert.org.