In June, 2000, the Human Genome Project announced the sequencing of the human genetic code, the identification of all the genes that make up human heredity. The results of the sequencing, the genomic map, were published in February of 2001.

The specific composition of each and every one of our genes is still in the process of being determined. In April, 2000, scientists announced that they had successfully completed the specific sequencing of chromosomes 22, 5, 16 and 19. The sequencing of chromosome 21 was announced in May, 2000.

While the Human Genome Project has understandably focused on sequencing our genes, parallel arms of research have been sequencing the genomes of other organisms. Scientists have gained great insights into the workings of the cells, as well as the molecules that make up cells, by looking at seemingly more primitive organisms, organisms that are easily cultured and maintained in laboratories. Other organisms whose genomes have been fully sequenced and the years in which those sequencings were accomplished include:

2000- Drosophila melanogaster, the fruit fly
1998- Caenorhabditis elegans, a form of roundworm
1998- Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacterium that causes tuberculosis
1997- Escherischia coli, a bacterium found in our colons and used in much research
1996- Methanococcus jannaschii, an organism that falls into a previously unknown category of living organisms
1995- Saccharomyces cerevisiae, a form of yeast
1995- Haemophilus influenzae, a bacterium that causes respiratory illness in humans (but is not to be confused with influenza viruses, which cause actual influenza, or flu)