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.

We have also written an article on the legacy of the Human Genome Project 10 years after the publication of the first draft sequence. Our article appears in the November edition of the magazine Catalyst (www.sep.org.uk/catalyst/), a topical magazine covering subjects across the UK secondary science curriculum. In the article we discuss the impact of the human genome sequence on medical research and some of the discoveries that have come out of analysis of the sequence, from copy number variants to genes associated with complex diseases like heart disease and diabetes.

The Human Genome Project was launched in 1990 with the grand plan of sequencing the entire human genome sequence within 15 years. The project began by creating maps of the human genome so that when sections of DNA were later sequenced they could be accurately positioned in the right places. A few years after the start of the project, DNA sequencing in earnest began and centres around the world started to generate sequence data. This data was made publicly available on a daily basis to ensure that the information was distributed to researchers quickly. This was a novel approach with all collaborators in the project agreeing to share their results for no charge before they had been formally published in a scientific journal.

By the end of the century these pieces of sequencing information had been assembled together to create the first complete draft of the human genome sequence. On the 26^th June 2000 US President Bill Clinton and UK Prime Minister Tony Blair jointly announced that the draft human genome sequence was complete and the Human Genome Sequencing Consortium later published its sequence in the journal Nature on the 11^th February 2001.  It would take another three years for a finished “gold standard” sequence to be published by the consortium on the 21^st October 2004.

The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute was the home of the Human Genome Project in the UK and was responsible for sequencing almost one third of the human genome, more than any other single sequencing centre in the project. Today the Sanger Institute’s research endeavours to improve our understanding of the role of genetics and genomics in health and disease. The Communication and Public Engagement team at the Institute promotes the understanding of medical research and its social implications. It also fosters a community of scientists from the Institute that discuss their research with different audiences. Through this blog we aim to keep you up to date with what’s new in genetic and genomic science and to discuss the ethical issues that may be raised. We’ll also let you know about new educational materials and sections on the yourgenome.org website and other useful resources and events for those of you that want to find out more about genomics.