美國(guó)Celera Genomics Group www.celera.com
實(shí)驗(yàn)室測(cè)試產(chǎn)品與疾病管理服務(wù)供應(yīng)商Celera Corp.(CRA)
盡管幾個(gè)月前人類基因組測(cè)序完成的時(shí)候,Celera公司的總裁Craig Venter宣稱,他的下一個(gè)目標(biāo)是人類蛋白質(zhì)組的測(cè)序,但在上周,Venter卻宣布他不再看好蛋白質(zhì)組的測(cè)序研究,他有了另外新的目標(biāo)。在談到由Myriad公司,日立公司和Oracle公司共同投資一億八千五百萬(wàn)美元并預(yù)計(jì)于2004年完成人類蛋白質(zhì)組測(cè)序的計(jì)劃時(shí),Venter說(shuō)道：“我們并不認(rèn)為完成對(duì)蛋白質(zhì)的籠統(tǒng)測(cè)序有太大的意義”,Venter還認(rèn)為該項(xiàng)計(jì)劃的能否按時(shí)完成值得懷疑,而且即使能夠完成也沒(méi)有太大的實(shí)用價(jià)值。令人不解的是,這些話似乎與Venter和他的同事們數(shù)月前對(duì)蛋白質(zhì)組測(cè)序研究的評(píng)價(jià)大相徑庭。Venter和他的副手們?cè)?jīng)在記者招待會(huì)上透露作為Celera尋找藥物設(shè)計(jì)新靶點(diǎn)工作的一部分,公司將參與蛋白質(zhì)組的測(cè)序研究。在3月24日的《科學(xué)》雜志上,一篇題為“這次還會(huì)是Celera嗎？”的文章介紹了Celera公司的蛋白質(zhì)組研究計(jì)劃,稱Celera將鑒定生物體中表達(dá)的各種蛋白質(zhì)并通過(guò)研究它們的變化來(lái)確定蛋白質(zhì)在疾病發(fā)生發(fā)展中的作用。在這篇文章里,作者引用了Venter的話：“我們將研究每一種器官,組織和細(xì)胞”,Venter還說(shuō)Celera擁有一流的設(shè)備和最大的數(shù)據(jù)庫(kù),有能力每天鑒定一百萬(wàn)種蛋白質(zhì)。另外,在去年7月17日BBC在線的一篇題為“Celera著手下一步的研究”的文章報(bào)道說(shuō)在英國(guó)伯明翰舉行的第18屆國(guó)際生物化學(xué)與分子生物學(xué)會(huì)議上,Venter說(shuō)Celera下一步的計(jì)劃是鑒定參與人體內(nèi)所有化學(xué)反應(yīng)的每一種蛋白質(zhì)。在寫給GenomeWeb網(wǎng)站的一封信里,Celera公司的新聞發(fā)言人Heather Kowalski說(shuō)：“盡管在蛋白質(zhì)組研究計(jì)劃中我們的目標(biāo)是廣泛性的,但是我們的重點(diǎn)放在研究疾病相關(guān)蛋白上。正如Venter先生所說(shuō),我們認(rèn)為蛋白質(zhì)組與基因組是有差別的,基因組是穩(wěn)定的,而蛋白質(zhì)組是變化的,在各種組織細(xì)胞中有著不同的情況,因此對(duì)蛋白質(zhì)組的大規(guī)模測(cè)序不是明智和科學(xué)的。”

Celera is a healthcare business that uses knowledge of human variability to provide new tests and services to personalize disease management. Our Products business develops and manufactures molecular diagnostic products that are used by hospitals and other clinical laboratories to detect, characterize, monitor and select treatment for disease. We have a distribution agreement with Abbott, through which we develop and commercialize a wide range of molecular diagnostic products, with Abbott serving as the distribution partner.
Our Services business, Berkeley HeartLab, Inc. (BHL), is a high complexity CLIA certified laboratory that offers over 25 clinical diagnostic tests including assays that determine lipoprotein particle size and density based on our proprietary segmented gradient gel electrophoresis technology, along with state-of-the-art genetic testing. These tests identify and characterize risk for cardiovascular disease and help physicians recommend treatment. Our 4myheart centers are staffed with medical professionals who use results from testing at BHL to work with patients, under their physician’s direction, to develop customized regimens for exercise, nutrition, stress management and therapy compliance.
Our internal research and partnering activities fuel the development of new diagnostic tests for personalizing disease management. These new tests are offered as products and/or services.
Celera was founded in 1998 with the mission to sequence the human genome and provide clients with early access to the resulting data. Using state-of-the art sequencing technology supplied by Applied Biosystems and sophisticated internally-developed informatics, Celera pioneered the application of “shotgun” sequencing. While this “shotgun” approach was widely criticized at the time, it has subsequently become a standard method for sequencing complex organisms that is now broadly accepted and routinely used by many of the same scientists who originally scorned the approach. Scores of organisms have now been sequenced using the Celera “shotgun” method.
Celera went on to build a successful database business, providing custom search tools and software that enabled dozens of pharmaceutical companies and hundreds of academic, government and biotech clients to use its findings in biological research. While the Celera database business ultimately became profitable, it was clear by 2000 that this was not a sustaining business model, as the public effort caught up and provided free access to genome sequences.
Celera moved on - both scientifically and commercially. Scientifically, we recognized that understanding complex conditions like Alzheimer’s and cardiovascular disease required a greater understanding of human genetic variability and therefore embarked upon the Applera Genomics Initiative. This involved re-sequencing the genes and regulatory regions of 39 people to develop a catalog of human variation – focused on the parts of the genome that code proteins and are therefore most likely to impact human health. This effort resulted in the identification of over 40,000 novel functional SNPs (single nucleotide polymorphisms). This work has become a basis for many of the new genetic tests that Celera is developing.
In January of 2006, Celera announced our intention to partner our small molecule drug programs and acquired full rights to Celera Diagnostics, which had previously been run as a joint venture with Applied Biosystems.
Today, Celera is a healthcare company focused on personalizing disease management through diagnostic products and services.