ABSTRACT
Research in the ethical, legal and social implications of the new genetics underplays the extent to which genomic information has become commodified knowledge in a globalised marketplace. This chapter provides a brief overview of the science involved in an abbreviated historical context. It shows how the new genetics developed as much of it is, in joint academic and commercial environments, is becoming organised and managed in novel ways. During 1900-1943, the genetics was dominated by breeding and cytological studies, when classical genetics made striking advances in transmission genetics. In 1944, Oswald Avery and his co-workers discovered a process they called transformation, in which DNA transferred from one Pneumococcus bacterium could alter the hereditary characteristics of the recipient Pneumococcus cell. Scientifically the new genetics may even, if some commentators are be believed, be in crisis as the limitations of the gene concept, and genetic reductionism becomes apparent.
