What is the Human Genome Project?
Begun formally in 1990, the U.S. Human Genome Project was a 13-year effort coordinated by the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Institutes of Health. The project originally was planned to last 15 years, but rapid technological advances accelerated the completion date to 2003.
Goals
- Identify all the approximately 20,000-25,000 genes in human DNA,
- Determine the sequences of the 3 billion chemical base pairs that make up human DNA,
- Store this information in databases,
- Improve tools for data analysis,
- Transfer related technologies to the private sector, and
- Address the ethical, legal, and social issues (ELSI) that may arise from the project.
Milestones
- Anticipated1990: Project initiated as joint effort of U.S. Department of Energy and the National Institutes of Health
- June 2001: Completion of a working draft of the entire human genome (covers >90% of the genome to a depth of 3-4x redundant sequence)
- February 2001: Analyses of the working draft are published
- April 2003: HGP sequencing is completed and Project is declared finished two years ahead of schedule
Anticipated Benefits
- Improved diagnosis of disease
- Earlier detection of genetic predispositions to disease
- Rational drug design
- Gene therapy and control systems of drugs
- Personalized, control drugs
To help achieve these goals, researchers also studied the genetic makeup of several nonhuman organisms. These include the common human gut bacterium Escherichia coli, the fruit fly, and the laboratory mouse.
What's a genome? And why is it important?
A genome is all the DNA in an organism, including its genes. Genes carry information for making all the proteins required by all organisms. These proteins determine, among other things, how the organism looks, how well its body metabolizes food or fights infection, and sometimes even how it behaves.
DNA is made up of four similar chemicals (called bases and abbreviated A, T, C, and G) that are repeated millions or billions of times throughout a genome. The human genome, for example, has 3 billion pairs of bases.
The particular order of As, Ts, Cs, and Gs is extremely important. The order underlies all of life's diversity, even dictating whether an organism is human or another species such as yeast, rice, or fruit fly, all of which have their own genomes and are themselves the focus of genome projects. Because all organisms are related through similarities in DNA sequences, insights gained from nonhuman genomes often lead to new knowledge about human biology.
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