Craig Venter's publicist Heather Kowalski did not like my recent post suggesting that Venter could not stand being left out of the recent announcement that scientists had sequenced and entered into a public database DNA pioneer James Watson's entire genome.
Admittedly I did not contact her regarding the post. My bad to be sure. But when you get no response only rare responses from someone repeatedly over a period of seven years, you get tired. Still, that's no excuse, and here is Kowalski's response:
Just have to say that we were a little perplexed at your piece yesterday on the 454 genome vs. craig’s genome. Maybe you aren’t aware of the history of craig’s work on the latest iteration of his genome. After leaving Celera he made arrangements to get the trace data from his genome from there in 2002/2003. At that point he and the team began to work on a new version of his genome both for the scientific/future publication aspects as well as for his autobiography (which he’s been working on for 3 years and which is slated to come out in October this year). There have been over the last two years several stories in major publications (wall street journal, UK daily telegraph, etc) in which he talked about the progress he was making on the new sequence and analysis of his genome. As well this has been a part of his lectures for at least two years. Given the rigor that he and the team wanted in the analysis they took some time doing it and it was last month submitted to PLoS biology. Seeing no reason to delay, the team deposited it into genbank on the 18th of May since they realize that it takes some time for genbank to get it into their system. Another words, they didn’t want there to be any delays from the publication coming out and the data’s availability in genbank. To be quite blunt they weren’t really thinking about what was happening with the 454 genome but rather were pretty consumed with their own work and ensuring that it was submitted to plos and to genbank. Craig has been very vocal about his support for what Watson has done in agreeing to have his genome published bc he has long been saying that this is what needs to happen so that an era of personalized/individualized genomics is finally realized. Its part of why he made his genome part of the Celera data and why he came forward to say it was his and that he has been doing a new version. Anyway, in the future even if we can’t get you in touch with Craig perhaps you can contact me and we can help you get the facts right. I realize that it was good press fodder to keep stoking the race and feud analogies and that perhaps many reporters long for those days since it would again add some drama to the genome world again but honestly I can tell you it’s really not a part of daily life and thought at the Venter Institute.
