PARIS, April 14: Scientists have completed work on mapping the human genome, the six governments coordinating the project said on Monday.
The six countries — Britain, China, France, Germany, Japan and the United States — said in a joint statement that researchers with the international Human Genome Project had “succeeded in decoding all the chapters of the instruction book for human life”, according to the French copy of the statement.
This would allow for revolutionary progress in biomedical sciences and human well-being, the statement said.
It said the project’s genetic scientists had made “important progress for the health of everyone on the planet”.
The Human Genome Project is an international consortium of public scientists launched in 1990 and coordinated by the six governments.
The heads of government — Tony Blair of Britain, Wen Jiabao of China, Jacques Chirac of France, Gerhard Schroeder of Germany, Junichiro Koizumi of Japan and George W. Bush of the United States — hailed the work of the scientists.
“This genetic sequence provides us with the fundamental platform for understanding ourselves, from which revolutionary progress will be made in biomedical sciences and in the health and welfare of humankind,” the leaders said.
“Thus, we take today an important step toward establishing a healthier future for all the peoples of the globe, for whom the human genome serves as a common inheritance. We congratulate all the people who participated in this project on their creativity and dedication.
“Their outstanding work will be noted in the history of science and technology, and as well in the history of humankind, as a landmark achievement.”
Scientists have predicted major progress can now be made in many uncurable and genetic diseases.
The importance of the work was also hailed by the US National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI).
“The international effort to sequence the three billion DNA letters in the human genome is considered by many to be one of the most ambitious scientific undertakings of all time, even compared to splitting the atom or going to the moon,” the NHGRI said in a statement.
“The finished sequence produced by the Human Genome Project covers about 99 percent of the human genome’s gene-containing regions, and it has been sequenced to an accuracy of 99.9 percent,” according to the US institute.
US researchers said that later this month they would release their “bold new vision for the future of genome research, officially ushering in the era of the genome”.
The release will coincide with the 50th anniversary of the announcement of Nobel laureates James Watson and Francis Crick that described DNA’s double helix. Scientists had announced in February they had completed a map of 95 per cent of the human genome. The complete sequence includes an estimated 30,000 to 40,000 genes that encode more than 10 times that number of proteins.
Knowledge of the human genome will enable scientists to find better ways of preventing medical problems, new drugs to treat previously untreatable disorders and medicines with fewer side effects, the Journal of the American Medical Association said last November.
The human genome project will also give scientists the tools to cure every known form of cancer because it provides researchers with a guide of where to look for cancer-causing defects in genes and enzymes, according to leading cancer researcher Brian Druker.
Knowledge of the human genome will enable scientists to find better ways of preventing medical problems, new drugs to treat previously untreatable disorders and medicines with fewer side effects, according to experts.—AFP
