With further discovery and decoding of the rest of the human genome, such medical advances could be significantly enhanced. In the very long term, researchers have suggested that most genetically based disorders in humans could be corrected before birth, using molecular biology techniques.
"Once we have the sequence, human biology can shift from the qestion of how to find the genes to the question of what genes do," Gilbert wrote recently.
Washington "Too Slow"
Impatient for Washington--which Gilbert believes "is too slow" to lead the way--the professor has been raising funds for his own sequencing efforts and plans to start operations this fall.
"We have the technology available to explore the field much more rapidly than we do now," says Gilbert. "If we start now that research will proceed much faster than if we just go along with science as usual."
Some scientists are skeptical that the government, not to mention a private company, could undertake such a large project as tracking all the genes. Gilbert's reputation causes others to shed their doubts.
"There are only one or two in the field of molecular biology who could propose doing something like this and be taken seriously," says Assistant Professor of Biological Chemistry Allen M. Maxam. "Walter Gilbert is one of them."
"It's a tremendous undertaking," says another Harvard gene expert. "It's crazy what Gilbert's doing but he's not crazy."
Graduating summa cum laude in both Chemistry and Physics in 1953, Gilbert received a Ph.D. from Cambridge University in 1957 before returning to Harvard as a lecturer the following year. Ten years later he was tenured after climbing from assistant and associate professorships. In 1980 Gilbert won the Nobel Prize for chemistry and in 1982 he resigned from Harvard so he could assume his full-time duties as head of Biogen, a biotechnology firm.
Gilbert Returns to Harvard
In 1985 left his Biogen post and returned to Harvard, whereupon his tenure was restored and upgraded this year to a University professorship. Earlier this year Gilbert also assumed the chairmanship of the Department of Cellular and Developmental Biology.
Gilbert developed the first technique to sequence DNA, the chemical blueprint by which genes are encoded. His methods are the principal theories underlying today's genetic engineering techniques.
Under a long-standing Harvard rule that professors could only spend one day of the week on outside work, Gilbert had to resign his professorship to head the Cambridge-based Biogen. He says that nothing of the sort will happen with his new company.
"I will have nothing to do with Genome's day-to-day operations," Gilbert says. "I will act in an advisory capacity once it starts."
The sequencing project will complement Gilbert's other work which is considered to be some of the most promising and far-reaching in the genetics field. One of his current laboratory projects is using gene sequencing techniques to analyze how DNA interacts with other chemicals inside cells.
He is also investigating the chemical evolution of human genes' structure, which is divided into two types of sequeces--exons and introns. Such work is integral to understanding the very mechanism by which genes encode hereditary information. In addition, Gilbert's work includes an analysis of how the human imune system operates, as well as discovering the molecular basis for central nervous system's development.
Unlike such research, which is on the cutting edge of genetics, sequencing holds little intellectual interest for the gene expert. He characterize genome mapping as "boring, assembly line work," and says that social good and the profit motive have led him to form Genome.
"I am interested in the final outcome. I think its a good thing to do," says Gilbert. "I am also interested in personal profit."