James Watson Puts On a New Hat

By Anastasia Toufexis

More than three decades ago, American biologist James Watson co-starred in one of the scientific world's greatest dramas. Together with Britain's Francis Crick, he solved the puzzle of life itself by discovering that DNA -- the genetic material found in virtually every living cell -- was arranged in the long, twisting strands of a double helix. Watson, 60, is once again playing a key role in an audacious genetic adventure. This week the National Institutes of Health announced that the Nobelist will lead the agency in one of the most mammoth scientific endeavors ever: mapping and analyzing all the genetic material -- the genome -- contained in human cells. Marvels Watson, who will continue as director of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York: "Thirty years ago my dream was we'd know the structure of a virus. The fact that we've progressed so far that we might know the precise structure of a human being seems to me to be wonderful."

Scientists uniformly hail the appointment. Says immunogeneticist Leroy Hood of the California Institute of Technology: "Jim Watson has enormous experience in science politics, and superb taste. By sheer force of personality, he'll see that the project is run in an appropriate manner." Watson will need those skills to guide an effort that has generated controversy ever since its inception three years ago. The project aims to identify the specific site of every gene that sits on the 46 chromosomes in human cells; of an estimated 100,000 human genes, only 1,400 have been mapped.

The federal project also plans to analyze sections of the genome to determine the precise order or sequence of the four chemicals -- adenine, guanine, thymine and cytosine -- that make up the DNA chains. So far, only about 600 genes have been sequenced. Information from these efforts is expected to help in developing diagnostic tests and even cures for the 3,500 disorders such as cystic fibrosis and sickle-cell anemia that are known to be caused by genetic defects, and those in which heredity has a major influence, including heart disease and cancer.

The project has caused a deep rift in the biomedical community, largely because of fears that it would divert scarce research funds. Mapping and sequencing the genome is expected to take at least 15 years and to cost $200 million annually. Another concern: Which federal agency is to lead the effort, the Department of Energy or the National Institutes of Health? Biomedical researchers have been worried that DOE, which entered the project out of interest in the effects of radiation on DNA, would stress technological achievements at the expense of scientific discovery. DOE scientists, on the other hand, have complained that NIH lacks the experience to handle such a large, complex program.

Tensions, however, have eased in recent months. In February a committee of the National Academy of Sciences strongly endorsed the project. Currently, NIH and DOE are hammering out a memo of understanding that will lay out how the two agencies will work together. Watson's appointment is certain to erase any lingering fears among bioscientists; his presence ensures that NIH will not take a backseat to any other agency. Says Nobelist David Baltimore, director of M.I.T.'s Whitehead Institute and once an outspoken critic of the federal genome project: "I'm convinced that with Watson as a guiding force, there will be a balance between science and technology."

With reporting by Jerome Cramer/Washington and J. Madeleine Nash/San Francisco