Sir, - With the recent release of the draft version of the human genome has come media criticism (sometimes explicit, almost always implicit) of the activities of Dr. J. Craig Venter, the director of Celera Corporation, who has jointly released the data with the Human Genome Initiative.
Celera Genomics has always had the intention of commercialising its research and in this respect it does not differ from any other high-technology company in the world.
Craig Venter's work has resulted in the human genome sequence being made freely available many years before the projected release date. His revolutionary experimental and computational methods - despite many criticisms from jealous competitors - have worked and the injection of impetus from Celera has resulted in the completion of this project many years before its due date. This has the potential to be very important for the future of medicine.
Craig Venter is a major reason we have some so far so fast. A little credit where it is due. - Yours, etc.,
Dr James O. McInerney, Director, Bioinformatics Laboratory, National University of Ireland, Maynooth, Co Kildare.