What is the Human Genome Project?

Genome sequencing technology has led to many recent scientific breakthroughs. These breakthroughs have captured the interest of the public and are being reported with excitement by both the media and scientific journals. The completion of the human genome project (HGP) is an example of newsworthy science that has the potential to have major effects on our society today. The HGP was an initiative started in the early 1990’s that has involved the efforts of hundreds of scientists to generate high-quality reference sequence for the 3 billion base pairs of nucleotide sequence that make up the human genome. The complete string of nucleotide letters that make up the DNA sequence in our cells is often referred to as our genome. This DNA sequence contained in a genome contains the complete code that determines which genes and proteins will be present in human cells. By reading the sequence of the human genome, scientists hope to gain an understanding of the underlying code that determines how a complex biological system, such as a human cell, acts and reacts. Insights from deciphering the human genome have potential to be applied to a better understanding of human health and could help to develop better treatments for disease.