On Apr. 13, 2003, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium announced the completion of the Human Genome Project (HGP). The HGP was a 13-year project coordinated by the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Institutes of Health with contributions from Japan, France, Germany, China, the Wellcome Trust and others.

The goal of the HGP, begun in Oct. 1990 was to discover all the estimated 20,000-25,000 human genes and make them accessible for further biological study, and to determine the complete sequence of the 3 billion DNA subunits (bases in the human genome).