$10 million offered for gene-mapping feat

The $10 million would be paid out only in the event that someone satisfied the terms of the prize competition within the next seven years. The X Prize Foundation has the option to extend that seven-year term, Murphy said. He said Blusson has pledged an additional $2.8 million to cover the cost of administering the prize.

Collins estimated that in order to win the prize, the genome-mapping operation would cost close to $20 million. That's in line with the precedent set during the spaceflight X Prize, when Allen spent in excess of $25 million to support SpaceShipOne's prize-winning effort.

With the help of private companies that have entered the business of making automated gene sequencing machines, Collins said the cost and time needed to make a gene map has fallen steadily. “This maybe will speed it up even further,” Collins said in an interview.

“If we do it, we have to fix this problem of (genetic) discrimination,” he added. Congress is working on a bill to make it illegal for employers or insurers to use someone’s genetic information against them.

Celebrities lend support
Several celebrities lent their support to the project.

“You may know that I am suffering from what is known as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig’s disease, which is thought to have a genetic component to its origin,” said Stephen Hawking of Britain’s Cambridge University, a leading physicist who has written several popular books, including “A Brief History of Time.”

“This prize and the resulting technology can help bring about an era of personalized medicine. It is my sincere hope that the Archon X Prize for genomics can help drive breakthroughs in diseases like ALS,” Hawking, who is almost completely paralyzed, said in a statement.

Murphy said Hawking was among the people on the "Genome 100" who could have their genetic code deciphered by the prize-winning team for the bonus $1 million. Allen, Page, King, Ansari and Rutan were also on the list, along with foundation donors as well as patients suffering from genetic diseases, Murphy said. The $1 million would be paid out by the foundation.

This report includes information from Reuters and msnbc.com.

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