Human Genome Project

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Human Genome Project (HGP), an international collaboration that successfully determined, stored, and rendered publicly available the sequences of almost all the genetic content of the chromosomes of the human organism, otherwise known as the human genome.

The Human Genome Project (HGP), which operated from 1990 to 2003, provided researchers with basic information about the sequences of the three billion chemical base pairs (i.e., adenine [A], thymine [T], guanine [G], and cytosine [C]) that make up human genomic DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid). The HGP was further intended to improve the technologies needed to interpret and analyze genomic sequences, to identify all the genes encoded in human DNA, and to address the ethical, legal, and social implications that might arise from defining the entire human genomic sequence.