Why Is The Human Genome Project Important

Everyone stands to benefit from the developments made in the field of genetics as everyone is made of genes. Genetics is the study genes and how they influence human biology. Genes are the molecular unit of inheritance found in cells, these genes encode everything about human physiology ranging from eye/hair colour to height, possible mental/physical disorders and so on. The field of genetic testing is concerned with advancements in the study of the functions of individual genes and how they influence living things. Major advances have been made in the study of the genetic structure of humans and external influences to our internal makeup, such as our quality of life and their implications that may have on our physical and mental development.

The HGP was a 13-year long project started in 1990 with the objective of determining the entire human euchromatic genome sequence. It was a public funded project and the goal was to complete the project within 15 years. Since its inception, the project had been met with scepticism from scientists and commoners alike. One significant doubt was whether the astounding expenditure of the project would outweigh the potential benefits from it. However, the incredible success of the HGP became apparent very soon after completion. Not only did it mark the beginning of a new era in medicine, it also made significant development in the various techniques that can be used for DNA sequencing. This publicly funded, $3 billion project began formally in 1990, under the co-ordinated effort of the United States Department of Energy (DOE) and National Institutes of Health (NIH). Although destined to be completed in 15 years, rapid technological development accelerated the completion date to 2003.

The genome project to me can be a positive and negative thing. The fact that we are now able to duplicate genes, could we someday be able to have identical clones of our selves. By having this accessible to everyone can also eliminate cancer and can help cure just about everyone that has it. They already cured at

In 1980 a projected called The Genome Project was proposed. Although, it didn’t officially start until 1990. The main idea of this project was to determine the DNA sequences of the human genome. Which could ultimately being around 3 billion nucleotide pairs. Another project is called The Human Genome Diversity Project, which is very similar to the Human Genome Project. Both of these projects discussed humans through DNA

Today’s society has an ever growing thirst for knowledge as we have for many hundreds of years now. Scientists work around the clock studying the affects of nearly everything they can think of to conduct experiments on. This quest for knowledge is the supposed start to a better life for man kind and ultimately a world without disease or hunger. The human genome project is one that has been going on for about 20 years. This project set out to map, down to the last detail, every part of the human DNA structure (“Human”). The project has recently been completed and the scientists are now starting another project with their newly found information, to cure mankind of its ailments.

Genes are what makes Elizabeth, with her unique physical traits, skin, eye, and hair color, even the texture of her hair. Genes also determine many other things such as if babies are going to be male or female also determining the likelihood of humans contacting a certain disease. Gene therapy is the introduction of genes into existing cells; it’s a new way to cure a wide range of dangerous diseases.

The documentary Cracking the Code of Life tells the story of two scientific teams, racing to decode the human genome. It talked about the wide range of possibilities the human genome presents once decoded, from curing diseases to completely preventing them in future generations. The documentary also talked about genetic engineering, which, at the most basic definition, is the altering of a human or plant genes. Genetic engineering presents the idea that we could one day genetically engineer human DNA to no longer carry serious diseases. The idea of being able to completely prevent humans from suffering from serious diseases one day astounded and horrified me.

The Human Genome Project: A Government Initiative The Human Genome Project (HGP) is a worldwide effort aimed at analyzing the structure of human DNA and determining the location of the estimated 100,000 human genes, the entire human genome. This effort will study and compare the DNA of other organisms to further our understanding of the human genetic makeup. This unique idea originated shortly after the United States developed and used the atomic bomb. There was a need of information regarding the study of the genome structure, replication, damage, repair and the consequences of genetic mutations especially those that are caused by radiation and chemical by-products of energy production. The U.S. Congress put D.O.E. (The Department of Energy) in charge of this research. The researchers soon realized that the best way to get these results would be to analyze the entire human genome so that they could obtain a reference sequence. The

In March 2000, many scientists decoded the genetic makeup of a fruit fly because the biology of a fruit fly has a lot in common with mammals, from this we found out that a fruit fly contains 13,601 genes but humans have 70,000 genes. Then in 2002 scientists decoded the genome of a mouse, the 1st animal, what we found from that is 90% of the mouse's genome could be aligned with a human genome. In 2003 the human genome project was

What is the effect of the knowledge gained through the mapping of the human genome on society?

The human genome project is an incredible feat. The significance and contributions of the project to the science world has and will have a significant impact of the way we treat, diagnosis, and prepare for diseases if an individual knows they have a predisposition to it. There are two significant contributions that I believe has been very beneficial to the health field. The first is recording and storing all the new found information on genomics into one database. More importantly though is having this enormous information in a database that is easy to navigate and that is useful to multiple different professional fields of study. With this database health personal can see the genomes of different species and over time can be able to the evolutionary changes of genetics of different species. Health professionals can also take the genome of a patient and compare it to the human genome in the database to see if they have a genetic predisposition to a disease or an abnormal genome to diagnose a disease. “Such detailed, fundamental understanding about our bodies will have profound effects on the ways diseases are diagnosed, on the prevention of disease, and on treatments.” (Collins, McKusick, Jegalian, 2012) With the identification/belief that there are “approximately 20,000-25,000 genes in human DNA,” (U.S. Department of Energy Human Genome Project, 2014) we have now begun to identify which genes contribute to diseases. The identification of these mutate genes can be recorded

The Human Genome Project basically was a research program that worked on a goal to get an image of human genome and get a better understanding of all a human beings genes. DNA is founded on 4 chemical bases, they turn into twisted ladder shaped DNA molecules. And all the the four bases are what create the genes just placed in different ways and different lengths. One revelation of the human genome project was when they learned that there are about 20,500 genes. The Human Genome Project brought many scientist together around the world and each one was an important factor for the project. It was a publicly funded organization and got funds and support from the Department of Energy and US National Institutes of Health

First, by sequencing individual genomes, researchers can uncover the genetic information from particular persons that concerns with all aspects of their physiology, from their susceptibility to certain diseases to the way they respond to specific drugs. Therefore, the genetic information obtained from sequencing individual genomes can be used for doctors to select the most appropriate drug to prescribe to a patient in order to ensure the maximum effect while minimizing potential side effects. Second, by looking at an individual’s genome, it is possible to identify genetic variants which can be used to predict or confirm a genetic disease. For example, it can be used to tell a woman if she carries the BRCA1 breast cancer gene and, if so, how much it increases the probability of her having breast cancer

Exploration into the function of each gene discovered will continue well into the 21st century. The knowledge gained from this will lead us to better understand the cause of genetically related diseases. Having the ability to recognize the causation of a disease will shift technology from trial and error treatments to specific drugs designed to treat the gene sequence and protein structure. This is called gene therapy and is the most exciting aspect of the HGP. It gives the

Human Genome Project The Human Genome Project is an international project basically sponsored by the U.S Government. It started in October 1990 with an aim to sequence the entire human genome. The complete set of information present in the form of the genes in an organism forms its genome. Each human being has 23 pairs of chromosomes having DNA double helix in each.