The Human Genome Project (HGP) is an international project that was coordinated by the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Institutes of Health. Other major partners and additional contributions came from the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Japan, and China. This project was formally initiated in October 1990 and finally completed in 2003. However, analyses
Although the double helix structure of DNA was discovered in 1953 by James Watson, Francis Crick, Maurice Wilkins, and Rosalind Franklin, it was not until the 1980s that powerful sequencing and information technologies were developed that enabled scientists to identify particular genes associated with hereditary diseases and to begin to map all of the genes
Determining the sequence of the human genome has been compared in significance to Neil Armstrong’s first steps on the moon and to revealing the “book of life.” At the White House announcement of completion of a draft sequence, the achievement was described by President Clinton in 2000 as “Without a doubt . . . the