Human Genome Project So Far: Big Money, Little Innovation

"Everybody kind of knows that we haven't gotten the results we expect from it yet," said Michael Mandel, chief economic strategist at the Progressive Policy Institute, who is unaffiliated with the report.

The new report released by science and technology company Battelle estimated that every $1 of federal investment into the Human Genome Project has spurred $141 in the U.S. economy. It also suggested that human genome sequencing projects and related work created $67 billion in U.S. economic output in 2010, as well as supporting 310,000 jobs.

"From a simple return on investment, the financial stake made in mapping the entire human genome is clearly one of the best uses of taxpayer dollars the U.S. government has ever made," said Greg Lucier, CEO of Life Technologies, whose foundation sponsored Battelle's analysis, in a statement.

By contrast, Mandel has described the Human Genome Project's failure to deliver on medically significant results as the "most significant economic event of the past decade."

"That's why the NIH is starting its new center, that's why all the pharmaceutical companies are changing their strategies, and that's why cities and states which followed a biotech strategy haven't seen the payoff," Mandel told InnovationNewsDaily.

Mandel said that doesn't mean he looks down on the government's investment in the Human Genome Project. On the contrary, he said he agrees with the report that it represented a much-needed federal funding boost for a project that may deliver great results in the coming decade.

"I think the eventual economic impact of the Human Genome Project will be enormous," Mandel said. "There is no doubt that the economic impact is going to be stunning."

Commercial companies already offer to sequence the genomes of anyone who can pay the thousands of dollars currently required. Do-it-yourself "garage biologists" have begun using such services to try and match their personal health risks to their own genetic makeup. Even the Pentagon has eyed the future of a "$100 genome" and may consider the uses of

But Mandel remains skeptical that the new report's economic numbers mean much at this point when the "Genomics Revolution" has not really gotten off the ground.

He pointed to job numbers for the U.S. biotech and pharmaceutical industries since the Human Genome Project was completed in 2003. The biotech industry saw a slight increase in jobs from 121,000 to 136,000, while the pharmaceutical industry experienced a drop in jobs from 292,000 to 277,000.

"When you have

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