$10 million offered for gene-mapping feat

The foundation that inspired a private-sector race to space announced a new $10 million prize Wednesday — this time to inspire a race to sequence the human genetic map faster and cheaper.

Although scientists have mapped one person’s genome — through both public and private efforts — it was time-consuming and expensive. The X Prize Foundation wants to inspire someone to map 100 different human genomes in just 10 days.

And just to spice things up, it is offering another $1 million if the team can decode the genomes of 100 more people, including some celebrities and wealthy donors such as physicist Stephen Hawking, talk-show host Larry King, Google co-founder Larry Page and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. (Microsoft is a partner along with NBC Universal in the MSNBC.com joint venture.)

The effort could speed the era of personal genomics — in which each person’s propensity to disease, response to drugs, and other tendencies are individually mapped, said Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Human Genome Research Institute. His institute is already working on ways to do this.

Next frontiers
The X Prize Foundation sponsored a $10 million prize to try to fuel a commercial race to space, and in 2004 aviation pioneer Burt Rutan won the cash with SpaceShipOne, a piloted rocket plane that flew into space twice in one week.

“Rapid genome sequencing is widely regarded as the next great frontier for science and will eventually allow doctors to determine an individual’s susceptibility to disease and even genetic links to cancer,” the foundation said. This prize will be called the Archon Genomics X Prize.

“I think someone will win this prize. I don’t think they’ll win it next week,” said Collins.

Collins’ institute spent 10 years and $300 million decoding the human genome. It got into its own race with Craig Venter, the brash founder of Celera Genomics, who did it with private funding but still spent $100 million and took nine months to do it. Eventually, Venter teamed up with the government scientists to publish a full genome map in 2001.

Will geeks inherit the earth?
Venter had offered a $500,000 prize to someone who could do it more cheaply. He is now giving that money to the X Prize Foundation, and is serving on the foundation's board as well.

“It’s like geeks are taking over the world,” Venter said in an interview. “Who thought a scientists could get $10 million for coming up with a breakthrough technology?”

The money for the Archon Genomics X Prize is coming from Canadian millionaire geologist Stewart Blusson, president of Archon Minerals Ltd., said Ian Murphy, a spokesman for the foundation. Archon's principal business is diamond exploration in Canada's Northwest Territories.

"He is one of these people who's just hell-bent on exploration," Murphy told MSNBC.com, "and in addition he's a very quiet philanthropist."

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