human genome


human genome

The entire gene map of all the chromosomes that contains all the information needed to make a human being. The genome contains about 6000 million chemical bases forming about 30,000 genes. The completion of the sequencing of these bases, along the length of each chromosome, in the massive research programme known as the human genome project, was formally announced on 14 April 2003, but well before that date the information obtained had already had a major impact on medicine. As an index of the speed of progress in genomic medicine, this announcements was made only a few days prior to the 50th anniversary of the publication of the structure of DNA by Watson and Crick.