The Human Genome Project transformed biology
Yet for genomics to become a part of everyday medicine, the hard work is still ahead
Twenty years ago the Human Genome Project (HGP) unveiled a mostly complete sequence of the roughly 3bn base pairs of DNA found in every set of human chromosomes. The project was chock-full of ego and hype, but also heralded the rapid improvements and dramatically lower costs of sequencing. This fed the success of the burgeoning field of genomics, which has transformed biology and medicine—and still holds plenty of promise.
This article appeared in the Leaders section of the print edition under the headline “Epic ambition”
From the April 15th 2023 edition
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