 Sci-Ed Fact: What is the Human Genome Project? In late 1990,
the biomedical community began work on a 15-year, $3 billion
(government-financed) program to map the entire human genome
(the complete genetic structure of a species). The goal is
not only to pinpoint the genes, but also to decode the biochemical
information to the so-called "letters" of inheritance,
the four basic constituents of all genes, called nucleotides:
(A (adenine), C (cytosine), G (guanine), and T (thymine)). Since
these letters are linked in pairs of sequences in the double
helix of DNA, this means that three billion pairs are involved
in this process. The justification of the project is, that since
genetics is a powerful way to study human disease and other aspects
of biology, Genome will accelerate biomedical research. (The
Handy Science Answer Book: the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh). |
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