Human Genome Project

The Human Genome Project was a landmark international effort, roughly the genetic equivalent of mapping an entire continent for the first time. Its goal was to read out the complete DNA sequence of a human being — all three billion base pairs — and make the information freely available to researchers everywhere.

Launched in 1990 and coordinated across laboratories in several countries, it produced a working draft in 2001 and a more complete sequence in 2003. Because the technology of the time was slow, the project took over a decade and cost billions of dollars, and it deliberately published its data openly as it went.

Its impact reached far beyond the single sequence it produced. The project drove enormous improvements in sequencing technology, created the first human reference genome, and laid the groundwork for modern genomics and personalized medicine. It is worth noting that the original sequence was not truly complete — small, hard-to-read regions remained until later projects filled in the gaps decades afterward.