Basic Information
 FAQs
 Glossary
 Acronyms
 Links
 Genetics 101
 Publications
 Meetings Calendar
 Media Guide

Midlife traditionally presents an opportunity for making evaluations, as progress towards milestones is measured and courses altered. So, too, with the Human Genome Project, the massive 15-year biological undertaking begun in 1990 to obtain the sequence of all 3 billion human DNA bases. Rapid progress and technology developments during the first half of the project have affirmed ambitions to tackle this daunting long-term challenge, and researchers are optimistic that the task will be completed on time and within budget. A third set of goals guiding the project's path over the next 5 years was presented late in 1998. (For progress details, see FAQ "How far along is the project?".)

Although initially controversial in the scientific community, the value of the Human Genome Project has been proved beyond question. The wider biological and scientific communities in the United States and around the world are developing tools and applications for the new data in such wide-ranging fields as medicine, agriculture, bioremediation, and industrial enzymology.

International efforts have played a critical role in the project's success, with at least 18 countries now supporting programs for analyzing the genomes of a variety of organisms ranging from microbes to economically important plants and animals to humans.

Send the url of this page to a friend