In 1990, the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Institutes of Health began the Human Genome Project (HGP), a program that intended to map out over 20,000 human genes contained within DNA. Within the first few years of this project, countries from all over the world jumped on board to help contribute to this massive undertaking. Some of the contributing international partners included England, France, Germany and Japan.
Along with identifying the tens of thousands of genes in human DNA, other goals of the HGP included:
- examining the resulting ethical, legal and social issues (ELSI) associated with having a blueprint for a human
- identifying the billions of chemical base pairs that comprise DNA
- including all uncovered information in functional databases
- passing off all improved technologies to private institutions.
Although the HGP officially finished identifying the components of the human genome in 2003, the vast amount of data produced will take years to analyze.
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