Human Genome Project Launched
1990 · 20th Century
The Human Genome Project (HGP) was formally launched on October 1, 1990, as an international collaborative scientific research project with the goal of determining the base pairs that make up human DNA and identifying and mapping all of the genes of the human genome. Led initially by James Watson and later by Francis Collins, the project was completed in April 2003, two years ahead of schedule, having mapped approximately 92% of the human genome with 99.99% accuracy.
Key Figures
James D. WatsonFrancis S. CollinsJohn SulstonJ. Craig Venter
Locations
National Institutes of HealthWellcome Sanger InstituteCold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Topics
projectNIHDNACelera Corporationinternationalgenome
Connected Events — 2 Connections
Watson's co-discovery of DNA structure provided the fundamental knowledge of genetic material organization that made genome sequencing conceptually possible Discovery of DNA Double Helix Structure
The Human Genome Project produced the first reference assembly of a single human genome, completed in 2003 and refined into GRCh38 in 2013; the pangenome reference replaces that single linear reference with a graph-based assembly from 47 genetically diverse individuals, capturing structural variation that the single-individual reference systematically erased — particularly in non-European ancestries. Scientists Release First Human Genome Map
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