Home > Your genes > What was the Human Genome Project? > What did the Human Genome Project find? > Where was it done?
Where was it done?
Scientists in over 20 different countries worked together on the Human Genome Project. They completed a first draft in 2000 and formally finished the job by 2003, exactly 50 years after James Watson and Francis Crick first discovered the structure of DNA. The partners in the Human Genome Project have made their results freely available to scientists around the world. Several private companies have also joined the gene race. Some have caused controversy by attempting to patent the genes they find.
Many countries are taking part in the Human Genome Project.
What did the UK do?
Double Nobel prize-winner Fred Sanger was the first person to read the complete DNA sequence of an organism – a virus – in 1978. The Sanger Centre, based near Cambridge in the UK, was the largest single participant in the Human Genome Project. Before tackling the human genome, the centre's Director, John Sulston, perfected the technology on the roundworm genome, which is a mere 100 million base pairs of DNA in length!
The DNA sequence of the roundworm genome was worked out at the Sanger Centre.
Principal Funder:
Major Sponsors:
