The U.S. Human Genome Project is a 15-year effort coordinated by the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Institutes of Health to identify all the estimated 100,000 genes in human DNA, determine the sequence of the 3 billion chemical bases that make up human DNA, store this information in databases, and develop tools for data analysis. To help achieve these goals, a study of the genetic makeup of several non-human organisms, including the common human gut bacterium Escherichia coli, the fruit fly, and the laboratory mouse is also underway.
Human Genome Project. An international, publicly-funded effort to read and decode the entire genetic information of a human being, the results of which were published in April 2003.