The map of us
It has been described as “biology’s moonshot.” After 15 years of planning and work by public- and private-sector scientists at 20 centers in six countries, the Human Genome Project delivered what then-President Bill Clinton called “the most important, most wondrous map ever produced by humankind.” What makes the Human Genome Map especially wondrous is its inward focus. It is the map of us, our portrait at the level of 21,000 genes. To mark the 10th anniversary of the publication of that portrait, Harvard President Drew Faust will host a panel discussion on the project next week (Feb. 22) in Sanders Theatre. The panel, featuring a leader of the original project, researchers who have benefited from the effort, and the head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, will consider the territory covered since the map was published in the scientific journals Nature and Science, and where researchers hope it will go in the...