Jay Knowles is enjoying himself. The biotech executive sits in his San Diego office, where he directs business operations for Structural GenomiX (SGX). SGX, a startup company, has raised nearly $40 million in venture capital since its founding a year ago and is now turning away investors. "Being the next wave of the genomics business, everyone's flocking to give us as much money as they possibly can," Knowles boasts. And, he adds, several large pharmaceutical firms are eager to buy SGX's product: three-dimensional protein structures, those intricate models with loops and whorls that lend a touch of the fanciful to the pages of scientific journals like Science and Nature. "We have lots of deals on the table," says Knowles.

Suddenly, Knowles' boss, president Tim Harris, bursts into the room. "Vertex has just cut a structural genomics deal with Incyte," he says. "Bastards. This is war."