Human Genome Project Launched

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.