Research on the Human Genome Project

A genome is the complete collection of an organism’s genetic material. The human genome is composed of about 50,000 to 100,000 genes located on the 23 pairs of chromosomes in a human cell. A single human chromosome may contain more than 250 million DNA base pairs, and it is estimated that the entire human genome consists of about 3 billion base pairs.   Now knowledgeable of the genome, one can fix his or her attention on the Human Genome Project.     The goal of which is to gain a basic understanding of the entire genetic blueprint of a human being. This genetic information is found in each cell of the body, encoded in the chemical deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). The project is intended to identify all the genes in the nucleus of a human cell; to establish, by a process known as mapping, where those genes are located on the chromosomes in the nucleus; and to determine, by a process known as sequencing, the genetic information encoded by the order of the DNA’s chemical subunits.

The ultimate goal of genomic mapping and sequencing is to associate specific human traits and inherited diseases with particular genes at precise locations on the chromosomes. The successful completion of the genome project will provide an unparalleled understanding of the fundamental organization of human genes and chromosomes. It promises to revolutionize both therapeutic and preventive medicine by providing insights into the basic biochemical processes that underlie many human diseases.

The idea of undertaking a coordinated study of the human genome arose from a series of scientific conferences held between 1985 and 1987. The Human Genome Project began in earnest in the United States in 1990 with the expansion of funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Department of Energy (DOE). One of the first directors of the U.S. program was American biochemist James Watson, who in 1962 shared the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine with British biophysicists Francis Crick...