The Human Genome Project.

The International Human Genome Project (HGP) officially launched in 1990, was a multibillion dollar effort to map all of the estimated one hundred thousand genes on the twenty-three pairs of human chromosomes and read their entire sequence. In the center of any normal human cell there are forty-six X-shaped chromosomes, and within each chromosome is bundled a double-stranded helix of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). Made up of varying combinations of four different nucleotides within the DNA molecule, each gene carries instructions for everything from hair color and height to how the brain is organized. All of the genes together are collectively called the genome. Thus mapping or decoding all of the genes in the human genome would give scientists unprecedented understanding of the human body and could point to the eventual diagnosis, cure, or elimination of many genetic diseases. Francis S. Collins, director...