Celebrating six years since the publication of the “Gold Standard” human genome sequence

Today we celebrate six years since the publication of the finished “gold standard” human genome sequence in the journal Nature (http://bit.ly/aDbvvC and http://bit.ly/b1bPxg). The culmination of 13 years work between 20 centres in six countries, the sequence has proved to be an invaluable resource for research scientists across the globe. It has helped to localise and identify genes responsible for cancer, such as BRCA2 (breast cancer) and MSH2 (colon cancer), Alzheimer’s disease, such as FAD, and many other diseases.

To mark the anniversary of this landmark scientific publication, we have released videos of some of the key players in the Human Genome Project discussing the project and its implications on our website, yourgenome.org/hgp. These include Francis Collins, the Director of the Human Genome Project, John Sulston, the founding Director of the Sanger Institute, and James Watson, the founding Director of the Human Genome Project and co-discoverer of the structure of DNA.