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Genome is the name for the entirety of the genetic information possessed by a cell--and thus, by a living thing. Hundreds of scientists in some 20 laboratories have been working for more than a decade to analyze the genetic information in the DNA molecule in each one of the 100 trillion or so cells in the human body. The Human Genome Project, run by an international body consisting of 16 institutions, aims to describe the whole of the genetic data inside the human cell and to read all the DNA texts written in genetic language. The biologists, chemists, engineers, computer scientists, mathematicians and experts in a great many other fields formed part of this international project, working to produce a biological map setting out human beings' physical characteristics. Yet despite all these efforts, the technology for recording the DNA sequence is still very slow, and recording the DNA sequence in a single human chromosome is a very expensive process--so expensive that some $2.7 billion has already been spent on the Human Genome Project,118 far more than was spent on sending man to the Moon and back.
The draft of the human DNA sequence was completed in 2000. However, the project assumed its final form, with the correction of errors and completion of gaps, only in April 2003. The National Human Genome Research Institute, and the U.S. Departments of Energy and Health co-coordinated the 13-year Human Genome Project, some of whose objectives may be summarized:
* To determine the 30,000 or so genes in the human genome and to produce a map of the human genes.
* To determine the approximately 3 billion base pair sequences constituting DNA.
* To preserve the information obtained in data banks for use in future research.
* To develop methods and materials for the analysis of the data obtained.
* To determine the links between genes and their functions.
* To establish how genes work as a single unit in chromosomes, and.
* To determine the basis and causes of genetic diseases.
The gene mapping technique employed in the project is to clarify where genes are located in the chromosomes, thus revealing the anatomy of a person's genome. With the mapping of the relative positions of a great many genes and other genetic markers along a chromosome, it is possible to produce a whole genome map. The mathematical analysis of the genome and a series of complex statistical analyses are employed to determine the location of genes on chromosomes, needed for us to understand the basic functions of the human body. One of the important objectives of the Human Genome Project is therefore the determination of the bases and causes of genetic diseases. It is hoped that with the data obtained from the project, an estimated 4,000 inherited diseases can be identified, and in the near future, therapy will be possible by means of the production of special drugs aimed at high-risk genetic diseases.