- Celera Genomics
Infobox_Company
company_name = Celera Group
company_
company_type = Public (NASDAQ|CRA)
slogan =
foundation =1998
location =Rockville, Maryland
key_people = Tony L. White, CEO & Chairman;Kathy P Ordonez, President
num_employees = 540
industry = Technology
products = Scientific & Technical Instruments
owner =
revenue =
homepage = [http://www.celera.com www.celera.com] |Celera Genomics (NASDAQ|CRA) was formerly a business unit of the
Applera Corporation , but was spun off in July2008 to become an independent publicly traded company. Celera focuses on genetic sequencing and related technologies. Headquartered in Rockville,Maryland , it was established in May1998 by thePerkin-Elmer Corporation (and was later purchased by Applera), with Dr. J.Craig Venter fromThe Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR) as its first president. While at TIGR, Venter andHamilton Smith led the first successful effort to sequence an entire organism'sgenome , that of the "Haemophilus influenzae"bacterium . Celera was formed for the purpose of generating and commercializing genomic information to accelerate the understanding of biological processes. Its stock is atracking stock of Applera, along with the tracking stock of Applera's larger Applied Biosystems Group business unit.Celera Genomics researchers were among the first to show the feasibility of the
whole genome shotgun strategy for sequencing large eukaryotic genomes. The strategy was already in widespread use for smaller prokaryotic genomes, which include bacteria and archaea. This strategy contrasted with the publicly fundedHuman Genome Project , which used a slower but saferclone by clone sequencing strategy. Celera sequenced the human genome at a fraction of the cost of the public project (approximately $3 billion of taxpayer dollars versus about $300 million of private funding). However, it must be noted that a significant portion of the human genome had already been sequenced when Celera entered the field and thus Celera did not incur any costs with obtaining the existing data, which was freely available to the public fromGenBank . Celera's use of the shotgun strategy spurred the public HGP to change its own strategy, leading to a rapid acceleration of the public effort.Critics of initial efforts by Celera Genomics to hold back data from sections of genome they sequenced for commercial exploitation felt that it would retard progress in science as a whole. These critics pointed to the
open access policy for gene sequences from the publicly funded Human Genome Project. Later, the company changed their policy and made their sequences available for non-commercial use, but set a maximum threshold for amount of sequence data a researcher could download at any given time.The rise and fall of Celera as an ambitious competitor of the
Human Genome Project is the main subject of the bookThe Genome War byJames Shreeve , who takes a strong pro-Venter point of view. (He followed Venter around for two years in the process of writing the book.) A view from the public effort's side is that ofNobel laureate SirJohn Sulston in his book "The Common Thread: A Story of Science, Politics, Ethics and the Human Genome".Genomes sequenced by Celera Genomics
Eukaryotes:
*Drosophila melanogaster (fruit fly)
*Human genome
*Mouse genome
*Elephant genome
*Three-toed Sloth genome External links
* [http://www.celera.com/ Celera Genomics website]
* [http://clinton4.nara.gov/WH/EOP/OSTP/html/00626_4.html Prepared Statement of Craig Venter of Celera] Venter discusses Celera's progress in deciphering the human genome sequence and its relationship to healthcare and to the federally funded Human Genome Project.
* [http://www.applera.com/ Applera Corporation website]
* [http://www.genome.gov/ U.S. National Institutes of Health website for the Human Genome Research Institute]
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