Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
similar to the methods required for tracking and organizing sequence in
a database. “These activities have in common,” Bell wrote, “enhancing
our understanding of the burgeoning data of molecular genetics both
by relatively straightforward organization and analysis of the data and
by the development of new tools for recognizing important features
of the data.”
54
Databasing meant knowing how to use a computer for
organizing and keeping track of large volumes of data. In other words,
data management—the organization of sequence data into a bank—
depended deeply on the kinds of computer-based approaches that Goad
had been using for decades in both physics and biology. Goad's experi-
ence with computers led him (and the T-10 group) to understand and
frame biological problems in terms of pattern matching and data man-
agement—these were problems that they possessed the tools to solve.
In so doing, these physicists brought not only new tools to biology, but
new kinds of problems and practices.
In 1979, Goad submitted an unsolicited proposal to the National
Institutes of Health (NIH) in the hope that he might receive funding to
expand his database. After some hesitation, a competitive request for
proposals was issued by the NIH in 1981. Goad was not the only per-
son attempting to collect sequences and organize them using computers.
Elvin Kabat had begun a collection of sequences of immunoglobulins at
the NIH, while Kurt Stüber in Germany, Richard Grantham in France,
and Douglas Brutlag at Stanford also had their own sequence collec-
tions. Dayhoff used computer analysis to compile the
Atlas of Protein
Sequence and Structure
from her collection of (mostly protein) sequences
at the NBRF. However, this kind of collection and analysis was not con-
sidered high-prestige work by biologists, and Dayhoff struggled to fi nd
funding for her work.
55
Goad's position as a physicist at a prestigious
laboratory afforded him independence from such concerns: he could
pursue sequence collection and comparison just because he thought it
was valuable scientifi c work.
Ultimately, the $2 million, fi ve-year contract for the publicly funded
sequence database was awarded to Goad's group in June 1982. Both the
origins and the subsequent success of GenBank have been detailed else-
where.
56
Goad's scientifi c biography, however, suggests that GenBank
was partly a product of his background in physics, as he imported a
statistical and data management style of science into biology via the
computer. Goad's position as a physicist at a world-renowned labora-
tory allowed him to import ways of working into biology from his own
discipline. Goad's techniques and tools—particularly the computer—
carried their prestige from his work in physics and had a credibility
