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What's the difference between the Human Genome Project and private sector genomics research?
The Human Genome Project
The Human Genome Project (HGP) is an international endeavor coordinated by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) through the National Human Genome Research Institute. The project formally started in 1990 and was expected to take 15 years to complete.
The main objective of the HGP was to sequence and map all human genes, a project that will be finished in 2003-two years ahead of the original schedule. With the completion of this project, the mission of the National Human Genome Research Institute is expanding to include studies of how the human genome functions to create proteins.
Private Research
In contrast to the HGP, individual investors finance private-sector genomics research. The goals of private sector genomics research typically overlap and extend those of the HGP. While private sector genomics companies also aim to identify all (or most) of the genes in human DNA, these companies further seek to use this information as a starting point for development of therapeutically useful compounds and disease treatment strategies.
Interestingly, competition by private sector companies in the genomics arena spurred the federally funded HGP to quicken its pace to achieve its objective before the original year 2005 deadline. In February 2001, the HGP along with Celera Genomics published details of a completed working draft of the human genome in the journals Science (2/16/01) and Nature (2/15/01). The complete "polished" version is slated for publication April 2003.
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