The Human Genome Project

The human genome project is a worldwide endeavor aimed to sequence the entire $3\times 10^9$bp-long human DNA. The project, initiated by the United States in the late 80' was launched in 1990 and was intended to be completed in 15 years with a 3 billion dollar budget. Due to the massive support the project got all over the world, it's completion is expected considerably sooner then expected. Since so far the effort was focused mainly at constructing biotechnical tools and methods, only $5\%$ of the human genome has been sequenced so far. The largest fully sequenced genome to date is the 10⁸-long genome of the nematode worm caenorhabditis elegans. The human genome project was entitled 'biology's space conquest', although its effects and benefits to biological and medical science will probably be much more significant and far reaching.