For all the hullabaloo surrounding the completion of the rough draft of the entire human genome, this feat doesn't mean much. The DNA sequences gathered so far are little more than raw material for new therapies and new knowledge of how the body works. As columnist Steve Hall points out (see "Botstein's Caveat"), the real work of refining the raw material has just begun. And in that work, rights to DNA sequences will be critically important.

Yet those rights will become increasingly controversial as time passes, because they intersect with an important and as yet unanswered question: Should it be possible to patent human genes? Biotechnology corporations argue that without the ability to profit from their work, bestowed by patent rights to specific genes, they will have no incentive to invest in R&D. In this issue's cover package on gene patenting, that point of view is lucidly presented by William Haseltine, CEO of Human Genome Sciences-an early and important player in the race to develop genetically based medicines (see "The Case for Gene Patents").