UCSD Gathers World Experts
to Salute a Decade of Genome Sequencing

By Debra Kain I December 12, 2005

Dr. Hamilton Smith

"Celebrating a Decade of Genome Sequencing," a one-day symposium held Tuesday in the Price Center Ballroom, brought together leaders in the field of genomics from around the world. About 750 faculty, students and local scientists were on hand to listen as two Nobel Prize winners, Dr. Hamilton Smith of the J. Craig Venter Institute, and Dr. Sydney Brenner from the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, began and ended the all-day program.

"Our goal was to bring together an interdisciplinary group to help us all think about where research needs to go from here," said event co-organizer Susan S. Taylor, a UCSD professor of Pharmacology and Chemistry & Biochemistry. "The symposium served as a catalyst for scientists from diverse fields to think about their work in a new way, and for several to solidify future collaborations."

Throughout the day, a blue-chip roster of leading researchers presented a look back at the first decade of advances in genomics from a variety of scientific perspectives and talked about future opportunities and challenges in this dynamic field.

Influential scientists who have played, and continue to play, key roles in shaping the field of genomics were at the podium, with expertise ranging from evolution to bacterial pathogens. They represented leading research institutions including UCSD, UC Berkeley, UC San Francisco, Stanford University, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Germany's Max-Planck Institute and Sweden's Royal Institute of Technology.

Dr. Sydney Brenner

Smith began by reflecting that since the first genome sequence was published in the July 28, 1995 issue of Science, advances in the field "have exceeded everyone's wildest dreams." He recalled meeting Craig Venter in a hotel bar in Balboa, Spain, in May 1993, where Venter invited him to join the scientific advancement council of The Institute for Genomic Research. In November of that year, they decided to use whole genome shotgun sequencing and assembly process to sequence the human genome, a process which took nine months.

Today, Venter and his colleagues are utilizing enormous computational tools to map genome sequences from the world's oceans. On a recent research expedition, they collected seawater samples every 200 miles as they sailed across the globe - gathering more than 200 million letters of genetic code every 24 hours.

Symposium topics ranged from the planet's smallest microbes to the role of environmental genomics described by David Schwartz, director of the National Institute for Environmental Health and Safety; from evolutionary genomics, illustrated by Svante Paabo, director of the Max-Plank Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany, who hopes scientists will next map the genome sequence of Neanderthal man; to human diseases caused by genetic mutations and the field of pharmacogenetics.

Sydney Brenner, considered by many to be the founder of molecular biology, wrapped up the symposium with his talk, "What is a Gene?" - a presentation that Taylor called "a visionary dialogue from someone who has witnessed a generation of change first-hand."

"Dr. Brenner has an extraordinary ability to see the whole picture of genome sequencing, because he has been leading the way at each step," said Taylor. She added that "the best thing about the symposium was being able to introduce students to so many stars in a single day."

The event was sponsored by the UCSD School of Medicine, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Calit2, the J. Craig Venter Institute, and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.