What is the Human Genome Project?

(N/A) The genetic makeup of an organism or an individual lies in the $DNA$ sequences.
If two individuals differ,their $DNA$ sequences must also be different,at least at some positions.
These assumptions led to the quest of determining the complete $DNA$ sequence of the human genome.
With the establishment of genetic engineering techniques,which made it possible to isolate and clone any piece of $DNA$,a very ambitious project for sequencing the human genome was launched in the year $1990$.
The Human Genome Project $(HGP)$ was called a mega project.
We can imagine the magnitude and requirements of the project by defining its aims as follows:
- The human genome is said to have approximately $3 \times 10^{9} \text{ bp}$. If the cost of sequencing is $US$ $3$ per $\text{bp}$,the total estimated cost would be approximately $9$ billion $US$ dollars.
- Furthermore,if the obtained sequences were to be stored in typed form in books,where each page contained $1000$ letters and each book contained $1000$ pages,then $3300$ such books would be required to store the information of the $DNA$ sequence from a single human cell.
The enormous amount of data generated necessitated the use of high-speed computational devices for data storage,retrieval,and analysis.
$HGP$ was closely associated with the rapid development of a new area in biology called Bioinformatics.