Draft of Human Genome on for Spring 2000

The first draft of the blueprint for the genetic makeup of humans should be completed by spring 2000.

"The international effort to sequence the human genome is on schedule," says Dr. Richard Gibbs, director of the Human Genome Sequencing Center at Baylor College of Medicine. "We have enough data to produce a working draft early next year, as planned."

Earlier this month, Dr. Gibbs attended the Fifth International Strategy Meeting on Human Genome Sequencing in Cambridge, Mass. He and other researchers from the 16 centers collaborating on the Human Genome Project confirmed they have enough equipment and staff to provide information on about 90 percent of the genome by next spring.

The human genome is the blueprint for the body's genetic code. The estimated 100,000 genes that make up the genome contain information about how cells reproduce and carry out functions. This information is stored on 3 billion base pairs, or chemical building blocks, in the molecule known as DNA. The international consortium aims to sequence, or determine the order of, those base pairs. This information should help researchers better understand how the body develops and how diseases occur and can be prevented.

So far, 739 million base pairs (approximately one-fourth of the human genome) have been sequenced. "The consortium has released this data into the public domain, where scientists can access it without fees, patents, licenses or other limitations on use," says Dr. Gibbs, Baylor professor of molecular and human genetics. The sequences of several individual chromosomes are nearing completion, and the first of these is likely to be announced before the new millennium.

Earlier this year, Baylor was chosen as one of three U.S. sites to complete the map of the human genome. Dr. Gibbs received an $80 million, five-year grant from the National Human Genome Research Institute to sequence the genetic map of chromosomes 3, 12 and X. In addition to the United States, other nations represented in the consortium are the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Japan and China.

After the draft of the genome is produced, the consortium plans to complete a final sequence by 2003.

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©2006 Texas Medical Center

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