The Human Genome Project was an international research project to sequence and map out the human genome. A genome is the complete set of genetic material present in a cell or any living organism. In October of 1990, the National Institutes of Health and the United States Department of Energy went on a quest to sequence all the base pairs in a complete set of DNA in the human body. With the research they would gather they hoped to understand why genetic diseases occur, how to treat them, prevent them, and diagnose them. This research went on for 13 years and included biologists and genetic engineers from all around the world. The Human Genome Project was concluded in April of 2003 and was a success. The Human Genome Project has helped to discover more than 1800 disease-related genes, and the tools used during the 13-year long project are still helping scientists decode genomes in other organisms. The Human Genome Project was a major key for improving our knowledge of our own species.
Encode.
In September of 2003, the National Human Genome Research Institute launched a public research project to identify all the functioning parts in the human genome. This project was known as ENCODE, short for ENCyclopedia Of Dna Elements. By reaching their goal of finding all the functions of parts in the human genome, they hoped to discover variations in certain gene expressions and link it to the development of specific genetic diseases. .
Genetic Engineering.
Genetic engineering is the process of manually inputting new DNA to any living organism. With the objective of adding new traits that are not already found in that organism. An example of genetic engineering would be genetically modifying food. Genetically modifying food has helped solve real world problems by giving us the ability to produce larger quantities of food in shorter amounts of time. Another example of genetic engineering would be cloning, or producing an identical copy of an organism.
