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The Takeda Award 2001 for Individual/Humanity Well-Being is awarded to Michael W. Hunkapiller and J. Craig Venter for the development of a large-scale genome sequencing system by establishing "the whole genome shotgun strategy" that utilizes modularized data acquisition system and high-throughput DNA sequencers.
Hunkapiller recognized the importance of automated and high-throughput analytical instruments in the coming era of large-scale genome sequencing, and produced a fully automated high-throughput DNA sequencer, the PRISM3700. He combined the technologies of high-throughput multi-capillary electrophoresis with fluorescent dye chemistry and an automated sample exchange system, and the sheath flow detection method to create the PRISM3700, which has a 10 fold higher productivity than conventional slab-gel DNA sequencers. Later, the PRISM3700 became a powerful tool for human genome sequencing and was used by both the Human Genome Project (HGP) and Celera Genomics.
Venter recognized the labor and time saving possibilities of the whole genome shotgun method, in which the whole genome DNA of an organism is randomly broken into millions of fragments and sequenced, and the resulting short sequences are aligned through overlapping regions using a computer algorithm, whereas the major players of genome analysis relied upon sequencing fragments of genome DNA after their locations are confirmed in the original DNA. His team developed an assembly algorithm that can handle large volumes of sequencing data produced by shotgun sequencing of large-scale genomes such as the human genome.
In 1998, with a way open to the production of vast volumes of sequencing data by the emergence of the fully automated high-throughput DNA sequencer, the PRISM3700, and the development of the whole genome shotgun sequencing algorithm, Hunkapiller and Venter developed a modular sequencing system that enabled the systematic and concentrated production and treatment of genome information with the operation of 300 PRISM3700 sequencers in one place, which is a novel engineering intellect and knowledge in the biological measurement. They founded a publicly-traded company, Celera Genomics, and succeeded in sequencing the human genome in a short period.
Hunkapiller and Venter also demonstrated that a commercial enterprise can carry out multi-centered basic research such as the sequencing of the human genome in a faster and more economical fashion than publicly funded research facilities and succeeded in attracting private capital to their work. Their achievement should be highly evaluated as techno-entrepreneurship.
The Celera effort stimulated and accelerated the publicly funded Human Genome Project and as a result, has opened the way to industrial applications of sequence information and contributed greatly to the development of genomic science. The achievement by Hunkapiller and Venter is having a great impact on medicine, agriculture, pharmaceuticals, bioinformatics, and is expected to make a far-reaching and profound contributions to Individual/Humanity Well-Being.
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