HGP Overview

An immense enterprise

The Human Genome Project (HGP) was an immense International enterprise: probably the biggest biological experiment yet attempted. Researchers worked together to read the entire sequence of the DNA letters (bases) in the human genome - more than 3,000,000,000 of them.

The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute is a genome research centre set up in 1992 by the Wellcome Trust and the Medical Research Council to further our knowledge of genomes, and in particular to play a substantial role in the sequencing and interpretation of the human genome.

Now - with the 'finished' human sequence released - anyone with an Internet connection can access the decoded human genome (with the exception of a few gaps that remain) and even print it out in the order that the letters appear*.

Being able to read out the sequence of bases will not actually tell us what each section of the genome does. However, it is a vital piece of infrastructure and an essential step towards understanding more about ourselves. Research based on this sequence is already providing information about how our bodies develop and function, and what happens when things go wrong. In the future, we expect this information to lead to new or improved medical tests and therapies.

*Warning: in a legible font, this would take up a stack of paper more than 90m high. We do not advise you do this :)