Human genome press conference 12th February 2003.

Hinxton : Wellcome Trust, 2003.

3 DVDs (c. 30:00 min. ea.) : sound, color, PAL
3 videocassettes (Beta SP) (c. 30:00 min. ea.) : sound, color, PAL

This material has low-medium production values; shaky camerawork and poorly recorded audio but is useful for its historical capturing of this event.

Tape 1 Chris Myhill (?) gives a few housekeeping notes and then briefs the scientific press. He expresses irritation at the confusion with arose as a result of an announcement from the US, a situation which also occured in 2000. Mike Dexter takes to the stand. The purpose of the press conference is to celebrate the mapping of the human genome. Mike Dexter quotes from T. S. Elliott's poem 'The Waste Land'. He hands over to Dr John Sulstan. Sulstan talks about the near miss over privatisation of the data. He comments on the importance of making the data openly available to the international research community. He refers the audience to the press pack which has copies of a chromosome mapped by the Sanger Centre. This is also projected onto the screen for the benefit of the audience, although this and other aspects of his presentation are not visible on the video. He reviews a 'product' launched by Celera (the private enterprise engaged with mapping the genome in the US). The Sanger Centre's efforts had been compared unfavourably with Celera. Sulstan's point is that a lot of their data had come from that which was publicly available. The first tape stops at the point of hand-over to Martin Bobrow. Time start:00:00:00:00 Time end:00:29:30:00 Length:00:29:30:00

Tape 2 Martin Bobrow's opening words are missing. He talks about the importance of diseases which are inherited to medical research such as cystic fibrosis. Due to the availability of the genomic data, some diseases can now be defined as genetic in origin. He discusses the estimates of the number of genes that it makes to create a human being; very many fewer than originally estimated. He cautions people not to be too surprised about this. Next, Richard Gallagher from 'Nature' magazine explains why they chose to devote an entire edition to the project and print three times as many copies, all distributed for free. Lord Sainsbury congratulates the efforts of John Sulstan and his team. He speculates that research will improve healthcare in the future. He reads a statement from the Prime Minister. The government underlines its committment to medical research in this field. Question and answer session; questions are hard to discern. Mike Dexter comments on Wellcome Trust's continuing support, although there is some hesitancy with regards to supporting the Sanger Centre going forward as John Sulstan steps down from the directorship. Sulstan answers a question about the mouse genome. Ends suddenly. Time start:00:00:00:00 Time end:00:30:26:00 Length:00:30:26:00

Tape 3 John Sulstan passes a question to Richard Durbin from the Sanger Centre who comments on the total number of genes. Sulstan answers a question about the way forward for genomic research. Mike Dexter comments further; specifically the potential for commercialising biology. Martin Bobrow is asked about genetic predispostion to disease. Richard Gallagher then talks about how disease might influence gene profiles (?) Mike Dexter mentions sequencing pathogens such as the malaria carrying mosquito. Lord Sainsbury comments on the availability of data making this possible. Sulstan comments on the assembly of data (?) Bobrow then adds that the size of the database is as important as the ease of extracting data. Sulstan comments on the publishing of Celera's data and the gaps within their sequencing. A spokesman from Channel 4 News asks Sulstan about bioinformatics. Richard Gallagher comments on his understanding that Celera's data is not available for redistribution; he fields a question. Sulstan answers a question about what would have happened if the human genome had been privatised. He comments on the value of data to diagnostics. Bobrow also comments on this. Sulstan answers a question about whether sequencing the human genome answers the debate between nature and nurture. A question is posed to Martin Bobrow about SNPs. Mike Dexter also comments. Off camera, Richard Durbin answers a question. Chris Myhill wraps up the conference and the audience gets up to leave, then the tape ends abruptly. Time start:00:00:00:00 Time end:00:30:41:00 Length:00:30:41:00

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