The Human Genome Project is considered a monumental milestone in human history. The goal of the project was to sequence the DNA of a human being and identify the 20,000-25,000 genes. The Human Genome Project was an international effort, coordinated by the National Institutes of Health and U.S. Department of Energy. The goal was successfully completed in 2003, years ahead of schedule, by the UCSC Genome Bioinformatics Group.

The Human Genome Project began in 1990. The ultimate goal of the project was to understand the human genome. A better understanding of the human genome could result in revolutionary advances in the field of disease research and treatment.http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/medicine/medicine.shtml The funding for the project was $3 billion with a time line of 15 years.

Some individuals felt that the sequencing could be done much faster and for significantly less money. The private corporation, Celera, headed up by Craig Venter adopted the shotgun sequencing method to rapidly increase the rate of sequencing DNA strands. This spurred the U.S. government-funded and internationally collaborated research group to redouble its efforts.

In 2000, a “draft” version of the human genome was co-released by the Human Genome Project and Celera. In April, 2003 an essentially complete genome was announced. It was not until May of 2006 that the sequence of the last chromosome was published, in the journal Nature.

There are many gaps still left in the sequencing of the human genome. It's estimated that about 8% of the genome has yet to be sequenced. http://www.strategicgenomics.com/Genome/index.htm These gaps include sequencing of the centromeres, telomeres, and other scattered portions of the genome.