Estonia Sees its Future in Genes

Survival depends on quick results

DNS-Labor in Estland Genpool Labor

Diamond's small firm already has signed on to the genome project and recently completed testing two antidepressants on a couple of hundred willing Estonians. By comparing the effectiveness of the pills to the genetic material of the donors, the company hopes to find out why the medication works for one person but not the other.

''We're basically predicting a person's response to the drug,'' Diamond said.

If Estonia's project is to survive, it needs many more Diamonds, Estonian Genome Project officials acknowledged. The company charged with finding them is Egeen, an Estonian-led start-up in the San Francisco Bay Area that holds the commercial rights to the database.

Kalev Kask, Egeen's CEO and a native Estonian, cut his teeth in the turbulent Silicon Valley biotech industry. He acknowledged the less-than-ideal investment climate currently for biotech ventures, but said the clinical drug trials underway in Estonia are exactly the type of thing that will attract pharmaceutial companies.

''The climate is such that you better come up with something that has short-term economic return,'' he said.

In addition to money concerns, the project has yielded its fair share of ethical questions as well. After decades under what they call the ''Soviet occupation,'' some Estonians are wary of the Orwellian request to put their most personal information in the hands of a few people.

Privacy and ethical concerns remain

''The project goes to your very basic being, an area that is very private,'' said Tiit Veeber, 54, a Tartu businessman. ''These couple of people control the data. . . . What will they do with that data? And do they have a right to sell it?''

Lab worker separating DNA

To stem these concerns, the Estonian government passed a law in 2000 that requires gene donors to sign a contract giving their consent. Anyone caught misusing gene donor information faces criminal prosecution. The law also ensures gene donor information and their blood samples are separated and forbids companies or researchers from taking the information out of the country, ensuring that the data doesn't fall into the wrong hands.

As to whether Egeen has a right to make money off of someone's genetic material, Metspalu said the project's altruistic motives far outweigh any financial ones.

''It's our turn to put something into this collective pool of knowledge,'' he said. If people make money off of it, ''then so be it: This is putting Estonia on the map.''