Book dossier

The common thread

by John Sulston, Georgina Ferry

"John Sulston was director of the Sanger Centre in Cambridge from 1993 to 2000. There he led the British arm of the international team selected to map the entire human DNA sequence, a feat that was pulled off in record time by an extraordinary collaboration of scientists. The ultimate success of the project, after innumerable setbacks and challenges from outside competitors, can be attributed in large part to John Sulston's own determination, passion and scientific excellence." "In this personal account he takes us behind the scenes of one of the largest international scientific operations ever undertaken. He reveals the politics, controversy, ethics, personalities, setbacks and accomplishments that shaped the seven years of research. He is frank about the competition with Craig Venter and Celera Genomics, which threatened to undermine the international community's attempts to make the sequence freely available to everyone. He shares with us his excitement as the project unfolded. And as a pragmatist he reveals his hopes and concerns about how the information unlocked by the Human Genome Project will affect people's lives in the future."--BOOK JACKET.