Corporate divorce reveals genetic secrets.

Until now, a business alliance has prevented the Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR) of Rockville, Md., from releasing much of the DNA sequence data it has gathered since 1992.

At the end of June, TIGR and its former partner, Human Genome Sciences (FIGS), also in Rockville, dissolved the relationship, and TIGR made public previously private information about the genetic content of 11 organisms. These include microbes responsible for the three deadliest human infectious diseases--tuberculosis, malaria, and cholera--as well as several other pathogenic bacteria and a bacterium that is highly resistant to radiation.

"We walked away from $38 million in funding in order to have complete academic freedom and ensure that our discoveries have the maximal impact possible," says J. Craig Venter, president and director of TIGR. HGS plans to use the liberated funds to develop its own products, according to a company spokesperson.

Complete sequence information, which acts as a blueprint for an organism, provides a tool for studying gene function and relationships between different creatures. Researchers use it to gain insight into how microorganisms infect their hosts and to devise ways of combating disease. Making the data available is the best way to stimulate research, Venter says. "It puts everyone on an equal footing. Now, it'll be whoever's smartest wins--not whoever has the most secrets."