An Introduction

The U.S. Human Genome Project (HGP), composed of the DOE and NIH Human Genome Programs, is the national coordinated effort to characterize all human genetic material by determining the complete sequence of the DNA in the human genome. The HGP's ultimate goal is to discover all the more than 80,000 human genes and render them accessible for further biological study. To facilitate the future interpretation of human gene function, parallel studies are being carried out on selected model organisms. View timeline and history for background information on the project.

An ambitious schedule has been set to complete the full sequence by the end of 2003, 2 years ahead of previous projections. Technology available shortly after the start of the HGP in 1990 could have been used to attain HGP objectives, but the cost and time required would have been unacceptable. Because of this, a major emphasis of the project's early years was to optimize existing methods and develop new technologies to increase DNA mapping and sequencing efficiency by 10- to 20-fold. The genome now is being sequenced with technologies and methods that have evolved over the past 10 years.

In the course of completing the sequence, a "working draft" of the human sequence will be produced by the spring of 2000. The plan includes goals for developing sequencing technology; studying human genome sequence variation; developing technology for functional genomics; completing the Caenorhabditis elegans (now finished) and Drosophila melanogaster sequences and starting the mouse genome; studying the ELSI of genome research; studying bioinformatics and computation; and training genome scientists.

The DOE Human Genome Program supports research projects at universities, the DOE Joint Genome Institute, DOE-owned national laboratories, and other research organizations. As part of the international Human Genome Project, vital and very active genome research also is being pursued by researchers and science funding agencies outside the United States.

Information obtained as part of the HGP will dramatically change almost all biological and medical research and dwarf the catalog of current genetic knowledge. Both the methods and data developed through the project are likely to benefit investigations of many other genomes, including a large number of commercially important plants and animals. In a related project to sequence the genomes of environmentally and industrially interesting microbes, in 1994 DOE initiated the Microbial Genome Program. For this reason, in addition to the DOE and NIH programs, genome research is being carried out at agencies such as the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the National Science Foundation, and the private sector. In a departure from most scientific programs, research also is being funded on the ethical, legal, and social implications (ELSI) of HGP data.

For more details, see

• Human Genome Project Information
• DOE Research in Progress (human and microbial)
• Science of genetics related to the Human Genome Project
• History of the DOE Human Genome Program
• Publications about the DOE genome program
  • A Vital Legacy (downloads a pdf file)
  • To Know Ourselves
  • Primer on Molecular Genetics
  • Others

     

  Contact for additional information

  Human Genome Management Information System
  Oak Ridge National Laboratory
  1060 Commerce Park MS 6480
  Oak Ridge, TN 37830
  Telephone: 423/576-6669
  Fax: 423/574-9888
  URL: www.ornl.gov/hgmis

  Program Office Address

  Life Sciences Division
  Office of Biological and Environmental Research
  Office of Science
  U. S. Department of Energy, SC-72
  19901 Germantown Road
  Germantown, MD 20874-0963
  Telephone: 301/903-6488
  Fax: 301/903-8521
  E-mail: genome@science.doe.gov

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