LIFE SCIENCE

Viewpoint: Yes, governmental and private agencies should now commit themselves to a Human Proteome Project because of the many practical benefits such work could bring, from improvements in rational drug design to the discovery of new disease markers and therapeutic targets.

Viewpoint: No, governmental and private agencies should not commit themselves to a Human Proteome Project; the intended endpoint of the project is unclear, and the battles over access to the data might be even more intense than those that marked the Human Genome Project.

The term genetics...