Human Genome Project

Essay by PaperNerd ContributorCollege, Undergraduate October 2001

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Human Genome Project I have been interested in the human genome project since my grandmother took a genetics course in the late eighties. It was interesting to read the textbooks she still has from then and the textbooks they have now. You would never think ten years would make such a drastic change but it has.

Ten years ago there was little interest in decoding the human genome and if you had mentioned the phrase randomly on the street you would have received a blank look. You probably would have been asked to explain what it was. Know if you mention it the majority of the population would not only know what the project is but also have at least a rudimentary understanding of what the project's completion could mean to the scientific community and the population in general.

This article explained some of the beginning difficulties there were with the program and the catalyst for the inception of the project.

It was extremely slow work, they really had no idea how long it would take, most of the information they were able to glean from the genetic code was for junk DNA and many of the scientists didn't want to work on a project they might never see the end of.

Once the scientific community realized how much useful information could be obtained by completing the project they began a slow but steady decoding process. However, the intervention of a privately funded group determined to be the first to finish the genome project quickly had the other groups working an intense pace to be the first. Which why they are able to say at this point in time they have decoded the human genome (mostly).

Now that they have accomplished their goal, they have to face the realities of...