The Human Genome Project is a massive scientific undertaking sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Institutes of Health. Begun in 1990, this ambitious initiative seeks to identify all the genes humans possess. At its inception, the project was expected to take 15 years; advances in technology have reduced that to 13 years, with an expected completion date in 2003.

The Human Genome Project intends to identify all of the approximately 30-40,000 genes that make up the human genome and determine the precise makeup of each of those genes. Genes carry the information needed by our cells to make our proteins, which in turn carry out the necessary functions of cells, organs and our bodies. Our genes determine our hair and eye color, some of the diseases to which we might fall prey, and it is believed, to some extent our life span. One long-term outcome of mapping the entire human genome will be to know the function of each human gene.

The project has not been without controversy. Two separate groups of scientists worked to accomplish the sequencing or unraveling of the human genome. Some of those working on the project were funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Department of Energy, under the direction of Dr. Francis Collins, head of the NIH's Human Genome Research Institute. At the same time, a private biotechnology company, Celera Genomics, under CEO Dr. Craig Ventner was also successfully decoding the mysteries of human heredity. The ongoing professional rivalry between the two groups of scientists was largely laid to rest in the spring of 2000, paving the way for a joint announcement on June 26, 2000, that the human genome had been successfully sequenced. The announcement referred to the complete sequencing of about 90% of the genes that appear on human chromosomes. The refinement of the sequencing, with the remaining 10% of the genes fully identified, should be accomplished by 2003.