Transducing the Genome

In short, genomics is an information science, and it is dragging all of biology kicking and screaming into the Information Age. Transducing the Genome is an incisive, behind-the-scenes look at this historic transformation. A geneticist whose career has placed him at the center of the action at such companies as Genentech and Incyte, Zweiger understands the business of genomics: the unique and anarchic collaboration of private, government and academic efforts in the HGP; the role of pharmaceutical companies; and the interests of investors.

He gets into details of the genetics, which is much more complicated and more interesting than the search for disease genes, and which will come into full flower only now that the human sequence has been completed. He explains the many new technologies that are coming out of the HGP and gives us a glimpse into their future applications. Most importantly, Zweiger places the people, the events, and the historical forces at work within the philosophical context of information science, providing the framework within which the historic milestone of the sequencing of the human genome and the birth of genomics will be understood for years to come.