It is an international research project to sequence and map out the entire human genome. It has about 30,000 genes. It started in 1990 and was completed in 2003. However, 1% of the genome remained un-sequenced. It was initially headed by James Watson at the US National Institute of Health, though he latter resigned largely due to a disagreement with his boss, Bernadine Healy, about the patenting genes. He was replaced by Francais Collins in 1993. The name of the center was changed to the National Human Genome Research Institute.$^1$
The genomes were sequenced from blood samples. The original sample size was 100. However they did not use all of the samples.$^1$
Like mentioned previously, 1% of the genome was un-sequenced. This includes the centromeres (central region of each chromosomes), telomers (ends of the chromosomes), loci (it is the physical location of a specific gene on a chromosome), and other highly repetitive DNA sequences.$^1$
However, the analysis of this DNA is still not done. There are still many questions still left to answer.$^1$
In order to study the DNA, they used this method.$^1$
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The genomic DNA is cut into pieces of about 150 megabases and inserted into the bacteria’s plasmid (extra chromosomal material that gets replicated when the bacteria reproduces). Then the bacteria is allowed to multiply. The inserts are isolated, and then they are mapped. This is referred to as the golden tiling path. The golden path is fragmented randomly into smaller pieces and sequenced on both strands. These sequences are aligned into contig, a known DNA sequence that is contiguous (biological term for continuous) and lacks gaps.$^1$