We are at the dawn of a new epoch in the world of science, one that will cast strong light on a unique corner of the biotechnology field known as genomics. The designation refers to the study of genes, those chemical building blocks of all living organisms. A decade ago, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) undertook the Human Genome Project, an effort to map the extraordinarily intricate chemical composition of the human genome. Scientists have long believed that understanding the vast genetic code underlying all human life will enable the development of new therapeutics that will precisely target individual diseases. Isolating the genome's three billion chemical units is a task of such immense scope that the NIH formed a consortium of academic and government research laboratories to undertake the work collectively. Because the project is publicly organized and funded, its research findings are published daily.

Genome research is also proceeding apace in the private sector, giving rise to extensive debate concerning the propriety of private entities owning what many consider to be information in biology's "public domain." The Celera Genomics Group of Rockville, Maryland, made headlines this year for releasing its research on a subscription-only basis, a stance that has caused some consternation in the scientific community. Thanks to large investments in automated gene-sequencing machines - and, it might be added, its use of free data gathered by the public consortium - Celera completed its "rough draft" of the genome first.

Whatever the outcome of the genome's public-private ownership squabble, managing an organization in this fast-paced, highly specialized environment presents several unusual challenges. "In this field there's no such thing as a five-year plan. You just can't see that far," says John D. Pratt (MBA '71), associate director and chief financial administrator of the Whitehead Institute. "Yet, if you're financing a new research facility, for example, sound planning generally requires a longer time horizon." Based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the Whitehead Institute is an independent, nonprofit research and teaching organization and one of the largest participants in the Human Genome Project through the Whitehead/MIT Center for Genome Research. Pratt notes that because the Institute is an association of academic scientists, its strategic direction is largely determined by the needs of its scientists and by the direction of the life sciences themselves. "Management's role therefore tends to be more of a resource provider," he says. Even so, Pratt adds that Whitehead's participation in the Human Genome Project has in many ways forced it to become more business-minded as it routinely faces project deadlines, production goals, and business uncertainties.

Eric S. Lander is a day-to-day source of inspiration for those taking on such challenges. A member of the TOM faculty at HBS from 1981 to 1989, Lander is the founder and director of Whitehead's genome research center. Renowned as a thoughtful, charismatic speaker on biotech issues, Lander memorably described the Human Genome Project as biology's version of the discovery and consolidation of the periodic table: "Not one hundred elements but one hundred thousand genes; not a rectangle reflecting electron valences, but a tree structure depicting ancestral and functional affinities among the human genes... the resulting tools will clearly spawn myriad individual projects, with dramatic consequences for understanding and curing disease."

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