The Human Genome Project Essay -- Science Genetics DNA Papers

The Human Genome Project The Human Genome Project (HGP) is a project coordinated by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the National Institute of Health (NIH). The HGP began in 1990 and was scheduled to be completed in 2005. The goals of the project are to identify all the genes in the human genome (estimated to be 80,000 - 100,000 total) and develop the complete human DNA sequence. After the sequencing is done, a database with all the sequence information can be made and data analysis tools can be developed to use the information. The HGP will then have to consider ethical, legal, and social issues. A new 5-year goal was approved in 1998 in which the HGP could be finished two years earlier than first planned in 1990. The new goal would provide a working draft of the human genome by 2001 and the complete human sequence by the year 2003. NIH and DOE are expecting to sequence 60-70% of the human genome. The other 30-40% will be sequenced by the Sanger Center, a project funded by the Wellcome Trust, and other international partners' (1). The task of sequencing the human genome is time consuming and very tedious. Since the start of the HGP, there has been a very large emphasis on developing new technology to speed progress and cut costs. The DOE has played a large part in the advancement of this new technology. Much of the community at first was curious as to why the DOE would be involved in such a project as the HGP. The DOE is interested in a better understanding how energy and energy-production technologies affect the health risk of people, with the most interest in the effects of radiation (2). The DOE and other private sectors have helped in the advancement of technology very rapidly; the result is lower cost and f... ...Genome Project: 1998-2003. Science 282, 682-689 (1998). 2. The Genome Project-Why the DOE?, http://www.ornl.gov/hgmis/publicat/tko/02_why.html, accessed 10/07/99. 3. Marshall, E. A High-Stakes Gamble on Genome Sequencing. Science 284, 1906-1909 (1999). 4. Potential Benefits of Human Genome Project Research, http://www.ornl.gov/hgmis/project/benefits.html , accessed 10/07/99. 5. Davis, S. The Human Genome Project: Examining The Arc's Concerns Regarding the Project's Ethical, Legal, and Social Implications, http://www.ornl.gov/hgmis/resource/arc.html, accessed 10/13/99. 6. Rothstein, M. A. Human Genome news "Protecting Genetic Privacy: Why It Is So Hard To Do", http://www.ornl.gov/hgmis/publicat/hgn/v10n1/14roth.html, accessed 10/07/99. 7. Gene Therapy - An Overview, http://www.accessexcellence.org/AB/BA/Gene_Therapy_Overview.html, accessed 10/07/99.