What is the Human Genome Project, and what if you knew what disease you were likely to encounter? Would you like to know? The Human Genome Project helped the human race understand disease and different types of cancers, thus improving the lifespan of humans. The Human Genome Project by definition is “An international scientific research project designed to study and identify all of the genes in the human genome, to determine the base-pair sequences in human DNA, and to store this information in computer databases. The Human Genome Project began in the United States in 1990 and was completed in 2003.” (Mifflin 1) The Human Genome Project brought scientists from all over the globe together to advance to one goal. Scientist from six different countries took on the task of sequencing the first human genome. The head scientist in charge of the United States side was James Watson, and later taken over by Francis Collins. Watson is best known as one of the co-discoverers of the structure of DNA. In 1992 Watson left the Human Genome Project because the new director …show more content…
The first step in discovering what makes up the human genome is breaking chromosomes into smaller, more compact pieces. In the second step, the shorter strand of DNA is used as a template to make a new strand. Then you add a base which is either A,T,G,C or a version of these bases. After that, the new strands need to be separated by a gel base on their size. Each base has a tag at the end of it to differentiate between them. To see these color you must have a fluorescent microscope then that strand will be characterized based on its colors. Lastly a computer reads the colors and then sequences them which then is compared to the others making up an entire genome. When finally finished the whole genome is submitted to a database where others can view and add to this