{"id":75353,"date":"2022-08-18T20:46:00","date_gmt":"2022-08-19T00:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=75353"},"modified":"2022-08-23T14:23:56","modified_gmt":"2022-08-23T18:23:56","slug":"sequencing-the-human-genome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/sequencing-the-human-genome\/","title":{"rendered":"The Human Genome Project: Sequencing the Human Genome"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Why did scientists embark on the 13-year-long undertaking of sequencing the human genome? How has the Human Genome Project<\/a> advanced our knowledge of genetics? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks to the Human Genome Project, we know where every gene is, what it codes for, and how. Despite this knowledge, however, we still understand very little about how all these different genes coordinate and cooperate to build and maintain our bodies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here’s how the Human Genome Project paved the way for genetics research. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The Human Genome Project<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In 1989, a group of biologists began the massive undertaking of sequencing the human genome. A council of 12 advisers, chaired by American geneticist Norton Zinder, led the effort. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The human genome contains over three billion base pairs\u2014for a sense of scale, the first fully sequenced genome was a virus consisting of about 5,400 base pairs. Completing the project would take an estimated 50,000 person-years and cost three billion dollars\u2014about a dollar per base pair. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, in spite of its massive scope, the Human Genome Project (HGP) released a first draft of the complete human genome just over a decade later, in 2000. Then, in 2003, the HGP\u2019s chair officially declared it complete: Every human gene had been accurately sequenced and mapped. <\/strong>The Project uploaded its final results to the internet, where the genome map is still publicly available today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Human Genome Project had benefits<\/a> far beyond simply improving our understanding of human genetics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n