Important events in the history of the National Human Genome Research Institute at the National Institutes of Health.genome.gov | About the Institute: A History and Timeline
1988 February 29 – March 1, 1988 – National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director James Wyngaarden assembles scientists, administrators and science policy experts in Reston, Va., to lay out a plan for the Human Genome Project (HGP). August 15, 1988 – A program advisory committee on the human genome is established to advise the National Institutes of Health (NIH) on all aspects of research in the area of genomic analysis. October 1, 1988 – The Office for Human Genome Research is created within the Office of the Director, National Institutes of Health (NIH). Also, NIH and the Department of Energy (DOE) sign a memorandum of understanding to "coordinate research and technical activities related to the human genome."
1989 January 3–4, 1989 – The program advisory committee on the human genome holds its first meeting in Bethesda, MD. October 1, 1989 – The National Center for Human Genome Research (NCHGR) is established to carry out the National Institutes of Health's (NIH) component of the United States Human Genome Project. The center's first director is James D. Watson, co-discoverer with Francis Crick of the double-helical structure of DNA.
1990 April 1990 – A five-year plan with specific goals for the project is published. May 8, 1990 – The National Advisory Council for Human Genome Research is established. July 1, 1990 – The Genome Research Review Committee is created so the National Center for Human Genome Research (NCHGR) can conduct appropriate peer review of human genome grant applications. October 1, 1990 – The Human Genome Project officially begins.
1991 January 22, 1991 – The National Advisory Council for Human Genome Research meets for the first time in Bethesda, MD.
1992 April 10, 1992 – James Watson resigns as first director of the National Center for Human Genome Research (NCHGR). Michael Gottesman is appointed acting NCHGR director.
1993 February 1993 – The Division of Intramural Research (DIR) within the National Center for Human Genome Research (NCHGR) is established. April 4, 1993 – Francis S. Collins is appointed National Center for Human Genome Research (NCHGR) director. October 1, 1993 – The United States Human Genome Project revises its five-year goals through September 1998.
1994 September 30, 1994 – Human genetic mapping goal achieved one year ahead of schedule.
1995 November 15, 1995 – National Center for Human Genome Research (NCHGR) celebrates its 5th anniversary. James D. Watson Lecture is established. April 1995 – The Task Force on Genetic Testing is established as a subgroup of the National Institutes of Health (NIH)/Department of Energy (DOE) Ethical, Legal and Social Implications (ELSI) Working Group.
1996 April 11, 1996 – Human DNA sequencing begins with pilot studies at six universities in the United States. April 24, 1996 – An international team completes the DNA sequence of the first eukaryotic genome, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, or common brewer's yeast. September 1996 – The Center for Inherited Disease Research [cidr.jhmi.edu] (CIDR), a project co-funded by eight National Institutes of Health (NIH) institutes and centers to study the genetic components of complex disorders, is established on the Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center campus in Baltimore. October 1996 – Scientists from government, university and commercial laboratories around the world reveal a map that pinpoints the locations of over 16,000 genes in human DNA. November 1996 – National Center for Human Genome Research and other researchers identify the location of the first gene associated with Parkinson's disease. November 1996 – National Center for Human Genome Research and other researchers identify the location of the first major gene that predisposes men to prostate cancer. December 1996 – ELSI Report is issued by the Joint National Institutes of Health/Department of Energy Committee evaluating the Ethical, Legal and Social Implications program of the Human Genome Project.
1997 January 1997 – Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Secretary Donna E. Shalala signs documents giving National Center for Human Genome Research (NCHGR) a new name and new "status" among other research institutes at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The new name, the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), more accurately reflects its growth and accomplishments. As an institute, NHGRI can more appropriately interact with other federal agencies and share equal standing with other institutes at NIH. March 1997 – A government-citizen group suggests policies to limit genetic discrimination in the workplace. May 1997 – The National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) and other scientists show that three specific alterations in the breast cancer genes BRCA1 and BRCA2 are associated with an increased risk of breast, ovarian and prostate cancers. June 1997 – The National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) scientists precisely identify a gene abnormality that causes some cases of Parkinson's disease. July 1997 – A map of human chromosome 7 is completed. August 1997 – NHGRI Office of Science Education (OSE) launches first Genomics Short Course for college teachers at NIH. December 1997 – The National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) and other researchers identify an altered gene that causes Pendred syndrome, an inherited form of deafness.
1998 March 1998 – Vice President Al Gore announces that the Clinton administration is calling for legislation to bar employers from discriminating against workers in hiring or promotion because of their genetic makeup. September 1998 – At a meeting of the main advisory body for the Human Genome Project (HGP), project planners present a new plan to produce a "finished" version of the DNA sequence of the human genome by the end of 2003, two years ahead of its original schedule. The HGP plans to generate a "working draft" in 2001 that, together with the finished sequence, will cover at least 90 percent of the genome. The working draft will be immediately valuable to researchers and will form the basis for a high-quality, finished genome sequence. September 1998 – A major international collaborative research study finds the site of a gene for susceptibility to prostate cancer on the X chromosome. This is the first time a gene for a common type of cancer is mapped to the X chromosome. September 1998 – NHGRI Office of Science Education releases first online version of "Talking Glossary of Genetics" in English. Spanish language version follow in 18 months. October 1998 – The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Department of Energy (DOE) develop a new five-year plan for the Human Genome Project (HGP). This plan, published in the October 23 issue of the journal Science [scienceonline.org], is designed to carry the project forward for the next five years, fiscal years 1999 through 2003. December 1998 – The genome of the tiny roundworm (Caenorhabditis elegans) is sequenced by researchers from the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) and other Human Genome Project (HGP)-funded scientists.
1999 March 1999 – Large-scale sequencing of the human genome begins. September 1999 – Human Genome Project (HGP) scientists confirm they are on schedule to produce the working draft of the genetic blueprint of humankind by spring 2000. October 1999 – President Clinton and First Lady Hillary Clinton host the eighth Millennium Evening at the White House. The program is titled "Informatics Meets Genomics." November 12, 1999 – The National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) hosts the first annual "Consumer Day" conference to inform patients, families and health care providers about the impact of the Human Genome Project (HGP). November 1999 – The National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), Department of Energy (DOE) and the Wellcome Trust hold a celebration of the completion and deposition into GenBank of one billion base pairs of the human genome DNA sequence. December 1999 – The National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) and other Human Genome Project (HGP)-funded scientists unravel for the first time the genome of an entire human chromosome. The findings are reported in the December 2 issue of Nature.
2000 February 2000 – President Clinton signs Executive Order to prevent genetic discrimination in any federal workplace. March 2000 – Public consortium of scientists and a private company release a substantially complete genome sequence of the fruitfly (Drosophila melanogaster). The findings are reported in the March 24 issue of Science [scienceonline.org]. April 3–6, 2000 – The National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Office of Rare Disease Research, and the Don and Linda Carter Foundation sponsor the first NIH Conference on Holoprosencephaly. May 2000 – Scientists in Japan and Germany report in the May 18 issue of Nature that they have unraveled the genome of human chromosome 21, already known to be involved with Down syndrome, Alzheimer's disease, Usher syndrome and Lou Gehrig's disease. June 2000 – The Human Genome Project (HGP) consortium announces a major milestone: It has assembled 85 percent of the sequence of the human genome – the genetic blueprint for a human being. August 2000 – Scientists discover a genetic "signature" that may help explain how melanoma – a deadly form of skin cancer – can spread to other parts of the body. Findings are reported in the August 3 issue of Nature. [nature.com] October 2000 – The National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Wellcome Trust, and three private companies collaborate to form the Mouse Genome Sequencing Consortium (MGSC) to accelerate the determination of the DNA sequence of the mouse genome. October 2000 – The Human Genome Project (HGP) is the recipient of the American Society of Human Genetics' Allan Award to honor the hundreds of scientists involved in deciphering the human genome.
2001 January 16–18, 2001 – The Ethical, Legal and Social Implications (ELSI) Research Programs of The National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) and the Department of Energy (DOE) sponsor a conference to celebrate a decade of research and consider its impact on genetic research, health and policy. February 2001 – The International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium publishes a series of scientific papers in the February 15 issue of Nature, providing the first analysis of the human genome sequence that describes how it is organized and how it evolved. One significant discovery reveals that there are only 30,000 to 40,000 genes, not 100,000 as previously thought. February 2001 – National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) scientists use microarray technology to develop a gene test that differentiates hereditary from sporadic types of breast cancer. Findings are reported in the February 22 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine. March 2001 – National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) and Human Genome Project (HGP)-funded scientists find a new tumor suppressor gene involved in breast, prostate and other cancers on human chromosome 7. A single post-doc, using the "working draft" sequence data, is able to pin down the gene within weeks; before, the same work took several years and the work of many scientists. Findings are reported in the April issue of Nature Genetics. May 2001 – The Mouse Genome Sequencing Consortium (MGSC) announces it has achieved three-fold coverage of the mouse DNA sequence. The data, representing 95 percent of the mouse sequence, are publicly available [trace.ensembl.org] and will be an important tool for discovering human genes when comparing the genomes of the mouse and human.