The Human Genome

Each human cell contains over six feet of DNA, packed tightly into 46 chromosomes in the cell's nucleus. This incredible length of DNA not only specifies the structure of each of the proteins it takes to make an adult human, but it also contains precise information that regulates when and where each protein is made, where that protein will function, and how long it will survive in the cell. With the formal completion of the Human Genome project, all of the DNA sequence information is available to anyone with access to an internet-capable computer.

The sequence of the human genome has been called both the "holy grail" of biology and the "blueprint" for life, but the best analogy may be to compare the human genome sequence to a common dictionary. We now know the raw content of the language of life, but we have to learn how the individual "words" work together to create meaning. This is the essence of the emerging field of human genomics-working on a larger scale to understand the full language of the genome.

As William J. Mayo, M.D., one of the founders of Mayo Clinic, said in the early 20th century: "The sciences bring into play the imagination, the building of images in which the reality of the past is blended with the ideals for the future, and from that picture there springs the prescience of genius."