Human Genome project essay

What is the Human Genome Project?

It is an international research effort involving many countries around the world such as China, Germany,
France, United Kingdom, The United States of America and Japan. Also, many institutions and
laboratories have helped on the research. Scientists are trying to determine the DNA sequence of the
entire human Genome project. The human genome is so long that it has to be divided equally between
dozens of countries.
What has the genome Project allowed us to do?
Sequencing the entire human genome
Identifying human genes
Charting variations across human genomes
Sequencing genomes of the mouse and four other "model organisms"

It has also allowed us to debunk any misconceptions that the general public had, believing that humans
had up to 100,000 genes. Scientists have concluded that there are around 30,000 human genes. This is
very helpful as it means scientists can learn more about different diseases and mainly diseases involving
alleles.
How helpful is the human genome project?
The $14.5 billion investment by the U.S. in the Human Genome Project, completed a decade
ago, has paid off more than 60-fold in new jobs, drugs and a rapidly expanding genetics
industry, an analysis has found.
The ability to map human DNA in its entirety created $966 billion in economic impact and $59
billion in federal tax revenue, according to the study released by United for Medical
Research and Battelle, two research advocacy groups based in the United States of America
Dozens of companies have started with the knowledge gained from the project, leading to new
diagnostic tests and development of medicines that can be matched with gene variants linked to
disease. The project triggered a new era in the life sciences, with new drugs and screenings among
the early developments in the field, said Greg Lucier, chief executive officer of Life Technologies
Corp. (LIFE)

These major accomplishments in genome sequencing provide a wealth of information that aid in
the understanding of basic biological processes. With genome sequence, scientists are now more
effectively able to study gene function and explore new areas of research such as how human
variation contributes to different diseases worldwide. Some diseases such as Cystic Fibrosis,
Albinism and Huntingtons.
Scientists today are discovering that the more we learn about the human genome, the more that
there is to explore. For instance, as a first step in understanding the genomic code we have learnt
that the human gen which is the beauty of science, the human genome is made of 3.2 billion
nucleotide bases (of which there are four types: Adenine, Cytosine, Thymine, Guanine). It is
thought that over 30,000 genes are encoded by this sequence.
Yet scientists have also discovered that over 50% of the human genome is repetitive sequence
that does not code for any proteins and the function of this large portion of junk DNA is still
puzzling scientists. Along similar lines, the HGP has shown us that the average length of an
expressed gene is 3000 bases long. Genome sequence information has helped scientists more
easily identify candidate disease genes; however, scientists have discovered that that over
50% of the genes discovered in the human genome are still classified as having an unknown
function. Human genome sequence information reveals that genome sequences from person to
person are almost (99.9%) identical. Interestingly, comparative studies show 95% sequence
similarity between the human and chimpanzee genomes.
By Armend Sadiku 12V Word Count 574