Maulik ShahTrivia QuestionsFor PresentationBioChem 118QMarch 3, 1998Doug BrutlagThe company’s name, Celera, comes from the word celerity. What does this root workmean?A. Rabbit food relativeB. Rapidity of actionC. An archaic form of celebrateWhen it comes to sequencing the human genome, rapidity of action is Celera’s primarygoal.Biography of Craig VenterDr. Venter served helped the military fight in the Vietnam, but what was he doing in hispre-Vietnam days?A. DNA ResearchB. Surfing the wavesC. Pursuing a lackadaisical interest in the arts.Dr. Venter was taking odd jobs up and down the coast of northern California to earnmoney so he could spend his free time surfing.However, after his service in the war, his mindset changed rapidly. In fact he decided togo to college. He chose to go toA. UC BerkleyB. StanfordC. UC San DiegoHe pursued and earned a BA and Ph.D. in Biochemistry in a mere 6 years.In 1984, he started working for the NIH. Where he pushed to begin a serious effort tosequence the Human Genome. As soon as he heard of an automated, however slow,sequencing machine, he asked the government for his own machine and laboratory.Unfortunately, he didn’t get one. Soon after 1990, the official start of the government’seffort to sequence the genome, Venter wanted to pursue his own project. What did hewant to do?A. Use shotgun sequencingB. Put more money in the programC. Want his own share of the moneyHe asked for $10million dollars to sequence most of the protein producing genes andpromised the task would be completed in 4-5 years. However the government denied hisrequest because it was not willing to give one researcher biased funding.However, a venture capitalist named Wallace Steinberg believed Venter. He askedVenter to leave the NIH and direct a non-profit organization to sequence the gene. Thename of the non-profit institution is:A. CeleraB. The Institute of Genomic Research (TIGR)C. Human Genome Service (HGS)TIGR is non-profit, however any of its discoveries are automatically given to HGSSo the two men started working on the project. It was at TIGR that Venter first startedusing shotgun sequencing as the primary method. Also because shotgun sequencingrequires the re-making of the DNA strand, they had developed a computer program calledAssembler to perform the task. So they decided to test the program and the technique onHaemophilus Influenzae Bacterium, a 2 million base pair organism. How does thisbacteria affect humans?A. Ear infectionsB. Respiratory infectionsC. Both A and BAs they started, they asked for a grant for the project. Several months into sequencing,the government processed the request decided to deny Venter, again, of a financial aid.They didn’t believe Venter was going to be able to do what he claimed. A few weeksafter the denial, Venter finished sequencing the entire genome.How many other organisms has Venter sequenced while at TIGR?A. 0B. 5C. 6The six organisms are a deep sea, hot pocket microbe, helicobacter pylori, borreliaburgdorfer (Lyme disease) and two other organisms. Not to mention 35K proteinproducing genesCelera is bornMay 9th, 1998 the sponsor, Perkin-Elmer, and Venter signed letter of intent. And boom,we have Celera. Very recently, within the last few weeks, Celera’s lab was fullycompleted. The lab uses chillers that push 1600 cubic meters of cool air per minute tocool the 257 sequencing machines. What do you think the combined sequencing capacityof these machines is?A. 100 million base pairs per minuteB. More than more than last year’s government’s total per dayC. The entire human genome in 3 yearsAll of these figures are accurate according to Venter’s expectation of his facility at fullproduction. Each machine can run for 2 days unmanned before few hour hiatus duringwhich ha skilled technician replaces chemicals in the machine. And instead of archaic geltrays, the machines use 104 capillary tubes to carry out the electrophoresis.CompetitorsThe only reason the government is a competitor is because its head, Dr. Collins decidedto sacrifice accuracy to fight against the private sector. The government now promises tohave rough working draft by:A. 2000B. 2001C. 2002And will have the “gold” version by:A. 2001B. 2002C. 2003Venter’s plan of course is still a little more ambitious. He plans to have an accuratesequence by 2001.Here in Palo Alto, InCyte has also started an attempt to compete with Celera. How muchmoney has InCyte decided to spend on their efforts over the next two years?A. $200 millB. $300 millC. $400 millInCyte hopes to find the SNP’s responsible for diseases.The NIH and its British counterpart held a conference in Bermuda where they decided torelease sequence data immediately and to never patent genes on a wholesale basis.However InCyte and Celera do not plan to abide by the precedent set at the conferencedue to their financial motivesFindingsHow often does InCyte post its findings, Celera?A. NeverB. MonthlyC. QuarterlyInCyte = A; Celera = BHow many genes does InCyte plan to patent, CeleraA. Every one they findB. Several hundredC. NoneInCyte = A; Celera = BHelpersCelera is using the aid of two computer companies two help manage their data. One isCompaq, who is using the 64-bit Alpha systems to handle the vast amounts of data. Theother company called Paracel that provides a computer known as GeneMatcher. Thiscomputer is responsible for performing:A. Smith-Waterman testsB. Hidden Markov ModelsC. Other testsThe computer performs all of these tests. The custom made computer uses 6000 custom-made chips specific for the task.CustomersAmgen is already contracting with Celera. The 5-year deal is a model for contracts Celerahopes to sign in the future with companies such as Amgen. Which one of these is not partof the deal?A. Amgen will receive specialized research services from Celera, including more genediscoveryB. Broad access to databasesC. Royalty free dealing with Celera.Celera will retain the right to collect royalties on if there are commercial sales.In conclusion, Celera seems to be the emerging Microsoft of genetics. With its super-sequencing power and promises of accuracy and expediency, I feel that the company willwin the race. It is already set out provisions to secure its place in the post-genomic era asa database/sequencing giant and has already secured customers and jump on
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