20 years after the human genome was first sequenced, dangerous gene myths abound
By Philip Ball,
The Guardian
| 06. 09. 2021
Twenty years ago, the science journal Nature published the first draft of the human genome: the sequence of chemical “letters” on the gene-bearing DNA of our chromosomes. The Human Genome Project (HGP) had laboured for a decade to read this coded information. In a White House press conference in 2000, Francis Collins, who led the project as director of the US National Human Genome Research Institute, waxed biblical, calling the human genome “our own instruction book, previously known only to God”.
The HGP has huge potential benefits for medicine and our understanding of human diversity and origins. But a blizzard of misleading rhetoric surrounded the project, contributing to the widespread and sometimes dangerous misunderstandings about genes that now bedevils the genomic age.
So far, there have been few attempts to set the record straight. Even now, the National Human Genome Research Institute calls the HGP an effort to read “nature’s complete genetic blueprint for building a human being” – the “book of instructions” that “determine our particular traits”. A genome, says the institute, “contains all of the information needed to...
Related Articles
By Meagan Parrish, PharmaVoice | 10.10.2025
When CEO Ben Lamm steps into the spotlight, it’s usually to talk about his efforts bringing extinct animals back to life. Once a far-flung idea, Lamm and the company he heads, Colossal Biosciences, have proven they can pull it off...
By Jessica Mouzo, El País | 10.03.2025
DNA is the molecule of life: this double-helix structure, present in every cell in the body and organized into fragments called genes, stores the instructions for making organisms function. It is a highly precise biological machine, but sometimes it breaks...
By Katherine Bourzac, Nature | 09.25.2025
A judge in New York rejected a request on 23 September to disqualify the use of cutting-edge DNA sequencing as evidence in a case against an alleged serial killer. The ruling paves the way for a type of DNA analysis...
By Claire Robinson, GMWatch | 09.29.2025
According to an article on BBC News, the Quadram Institute in Norwich is recruiting 76 people with low vitamin D to take part in the ViTaL-D Study, where some participants will eat soup containing tomatoes that have been genetically...