Human Genome Project
oracknows | September 14, 2012The Human Genome Project (HGP) was one of the most massive scientific undertakings in recent years and, from a basic science and technology development standpoint, one of the most productive. The data gained formed the basis of the genomic revolution. And "revolution" is the right word. A mere 12 years after the human genome sequence was first published in papers in Nature and Science, we now have petabytes of sequence data pouring out of universities, research institutes, and genomics institutes. Sequencing a genome, which took several years to do for the HGP and cost billions of dollars,…
ddobbs | June 21, 2010
John Hawks, in his paleodreams. I mean that in the best way.
John Hawks bumps into a prescient estimate of the total gene number in humans:
While doing some other research, I ran across a remarkable short paper by James Spuhler, "On the number of genes in man," printed in Science in 1948. We've been hearing for the last ten years how the low gene count in humans -- only 20,000 or so genes -- is "surprising" to scientists who had previously imagined that humans would have many more genes than this. So here's the next to the last line of Spuhler's article: On the basis of these speculations…
oracknows | June 14, 2010I've had the immense good fortune to have trained and ultimately become a physician-scientist during a time when the pace of discovery and the paradigm changes in science have occurred just over the course of my career in medicine and science has been staggering. microRNA, the shift from single gene studies to genomics, the development of targeted therapies, the completion of the Human Genome Project, these are but a few examples. Of course, arguably the Human Genome Project is the granddaddy of all of the huge changes and paradigm shifts that has occurred to revolutionize biomedical research…
sporte | May 28, 2008After leading the Human Genome Project and the National Human Genome Research Institute at the NIH for many years, Francis Collins is retiring.
No matter what you think of Francis Collins, he's been successful in getting the genome project done and he's done some amazing things during the 15 years that he's headed NHGRI.
My friend, Dr. Joan Messer, told me many times about the hours he spent talking with students at one of the AAAS meetings. I will always remember him from the NWABR fund-raising dinner where he pulled out his guitar and had the entire audience singing about DNA.