Subject: Du Pont Introduces System to Analyze Genetic Sequences
Date: Published: 10/16/87 89 lines
Source:  WALL STREET JOURNAL. Copyright Dow Jones & Co. Inc. 

    Du Pont Introduces
    System to Analyze
    Genetic Sequences
    ---
    Scientists Hope Genesis 2000
    Will Speed Investigation
    Of Inherited Diseases
    ---
    By Laurie Hays
    Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal

    WILMINGTON, Del. -- Du Pont Co. announced a new system for
 sequencing DNA, the process of analyzing genetic codes that
 scientists hope will lead to new treatments and cures for
 inherited diseases.
    Du Pont's invention, called Genesis 2000, isn't the first
 such system to appear on the market and it's too early to
 tell how successful it will be.  But some scientists hope it
 will contribute improved technology for producing faster and
 more accurate pictures of the DNA structure.  The scientists
 are seeking improvements in current methods of analyzing DNA,
 the chain of basic chemicals which direct the growth of
 living material, because medical research is increasingly
 focused on unraveling genetic abnormalities that cause
 disease.
    "It's a good first step, like the first IBM-PC computer
 system," says Louis Kunkel, an associate investigator at the
 Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Boston.  "Studies that are
 getting at the genes are the cutting edge of research these
 days," adds Victor McKusick, a geneticist at Johns Hopkins
 University in Baltimore.
    Not only do scientists hope to find the clues to such
 diseases as diabetes, muscular dystrophy and AIDS (acquired
 immune deficiency syndrome) by understanding the makeup of
 genes, but some are now proposing to analyze in detail the
 human genome, the sum of the DNA chains contained within a
 set of chromosomes that govern the makeup and functioning of
 the human body.
    Most DNA analysis is still done manually, but some
 research laboratories are now using a machine similar to Du
 Pont's that was introduced early this year by Applied
 Biosystems Inc., of Foster City, Calif.  Some foreign
 biotechnology concerns are also developing sequencers.
    The advantage of the new machines over manual methods is
 that they process information much more quickly and require
 fewer people.  Sequencing is the laborious process of
 determining the order of the bases, the molecular subunits
 that line up on the double strands of DNA. A gene is
 comprised of a long sequence of such bases and is the
 blueprint that cells use to reproduce themselves and to
 manufacture the proteins that shape human and plant
 processes.
    Scientists using the manual method take DNA from blood or
 other tissues and prepare short, radioactively labeled
 fragments.  The fragments are separated in a gel, according to
 length, and the resulting pattern is seen on a film.
 Scientists then read the resulting X-ray-like pictures to
 determine the order of the bases.  The process is time
 consuming and labor intensive because it takes several days
 for the film to be generated, exposed and read.  Sometimes
 results are fuzzy and the experiments must be repeated.
    The automatic sequencers prepare similar fragments but tag
 them with fluorescent markers.  Scientists can then rapidly
 determine the order of the bases by identifying the markers
 with a laser.
    The most time consuming aspect of DNA sequencing, however,
 is preparing clean samples, and the automatic sequencers
 don't yet solve this problem, scientists say.  They also
 question the accuracy of the new systems.  In addition, the
 machines are expensive.  Genesis 2000, for example, is priced
 at $90,000.
    Du Pont expects to begin delivery of its sequencer in
 February and says it has several orders.  Applied Biosystems
 says it has sold about 100 sequencers.
    "It's not what the machines can do today, but their
 capacity for change," explains J. Craig Venter, co-director
 of the laboratory of molecular and cellular neurobiology at
 the National Institutes of Health.  "They make goals like
 sequencing the human genome really thinkable."

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