The Human Genome Project is declared complete

On 14 April 2003, two years ahead of schedule and fifty years after the discovery of the double helix, scientists announced that the Human Genome Project had finished sequencing 99 per cent of the gene-containing parts of the human genome with 99.99 per cent accuracy. Started in 1990 with a budget of about 3 billion dollars and involving labs in six countries, the project made all data free on the internet. The cost of sequencing a genome has since fallen from billions of dollars to a few hundred dollars, bringing in an era of personalised medicine.

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