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21.1: The Human Genome Project

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    472124
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    The Human Genome Project was an international scientific research project with the goal of determining the base pairs that make up human DNA, and of identifying, mapping and sequencing all of the genes of the human genome from both a physical and a functional standpoint. It started in 1990 and was completed in 2003.It remains the world's largest collaborative biological project. Planning for the project started after it was adopted in 1984 by the US government, and it officially launched in 1990. It was declared complete on April 14, 2003, and included about 92% of the genome. Level "complete genome" was achieved in May 2021, with a remaining only 0.3% bases covered by potential issues. The final gapless assembly was finished in January 2022.

    HGP.png
    Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): The Human Genome Project revealed that we are made up of 3.4 billion bases of DNA. The first print out of these are housed in the Wellcome Collection (London) and span over one hundred volumes, each one thousand pages long. This is one of those pages. (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0;  via Flickr)

    The sequencing of the human genome holds benefits for many fields, from molecular medicine to human evolution. The Human Genome Project, through its sequencing of the DNA, can help researchers understand diseases including: genotyping of specific viruses to direct appropriate treatment; identification of mutations linked to different forms of cancer; the design of medication and more accurate prediction of their effects; advancement in forensic applied sciences; biofuels and other energy applications; agriculture, animal husbandry, bioprocessing; risk assessment; bioarcheology, anthropology and evolution. 


    21.1: The Human Genome Project is shared under a not declared license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by LibreTexts.

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