What is the Human Genome Project thing???

Question

No wiki "copy paste" answers... I want an explaination.. Like what is it, and what it does, or will do.. And how that will benefit us all..

Answer 1

What's a genome? And why is it important?

A genome is all the DNA in an organism, including its genes. Genes carry information for making all the proteins required by all organisms. These proteins determine, among other things, how the organism looks, how well its body metabolizes food or fights infection, and sometimes even how it behaves.
DNA is made up of four similar chemicals (called bases and abbreviated A, T, C, and G) that are repeated millions or billions of times throughout a genome. The human genome, for example, has 3 billion pairs of bases.
The particular order of As, Ts, Cs, and Gs is extremely important. The order underlies all of life's diversity, even dictating whether an organism is human or another species such as yeast, rice, or fruit fly, all of which have their own genomes and are themselves the focus of genome projects. Because all organisms are related through similarities in DNA sequences, insights gained from nonhuman genomes often lead to new knowledge about human biology.

What is the Human Genome Project?
Begun formally in 1990, the U.S. Human Genome Project was a 13-year effort coordinated by the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Institutes of Health. The project originally was planned to last 15 years, but rapid technological advances accelerated the completion date to 2003. Project goals were to identify all the approximately 20,000-25,000 genes in human DNA,
determine the sequences of the 3 billion chemical base pairs that make up human DNA, store this information in databases, improve tools for data analysis,
transfer related technologies to the private sector, and
address the ethical, legal, and social issues (ELSI) that may arise from the project.
To help achieve these goals, researchers also studied the genetic makeup of several nonhuman organisms. These include the common human gut bacterium Escherichia coli, the fruit fly, and the laboratory mouse.
A unique aspect of the U.S. Human Genome Project is that it was the first large scientific undertaking to address potential ELSI implications arising from project data.

Another important feature of the project was the federal government's long-standing dedication to the transfer of technology to the private sector. By licensing technologies to private companies and awarding grants for innovative research, the project catalyzed the multibillion-dollar U.S. biotechnology industry and fostered the development of new medical applications.

Answer 2

The Human Genome Project was and is an attempt to create a map that shows where the genes are on the human chromosomes and sequence the human genome as well as other genomes. The project was a first for biology in that Congress was approached and money was requested to fund the project at the Department of Energy (DOE), rather than individual researchers requesting money grants from NIH for many small pieces. Up until the HG Project, the field of biology had never had a "big project" with easily defined goals and progress markers along the way, like NASA with the space program and physicists with large-scale construction programs. So, since the technology was available to map genes and sequence them, it was relatively easy to convince Congress to fund the program since there was a defined goal and progress could be shown in little steps along the way. Also, initially it was thought that the genes could be patented, potentially creating a way for the few people mapping the genome to make money. Also, a little fame was given to these few people who desired that. The project has had a good benefit, in that it was a good political move to get some Congressional interest in biology by having a snazzy "name" project. IMHO, however, the money could have been better spent on basic research into diseases; the genes would have been mapped during the course of basic disease research in due time.

Answer 3

The human genome project was a successful attempt to map the entire genetic code of humans. To see all the genes on all 46 chromosomes. The hope is that now we can see each gene, each sequence in the 3 billion chemical base pairs., we can figure out what each of them do, which we have for a lot of them, and then be able to target genetic disorders by knowing exactly what gene to fix.