THE HUMAN GENOME PROJECT AND ITS RELEVANC E FOR BIOMEDICAL-RESEARCH -THE GERMAN CONTRIBUTION

The international Human Genome Project aims to decipher the entire hum an genome. This will lead to the identification of the estimated 100,0 00 human genes, to the understanding of their function, and ultimative ly to the global understanding of the biology of the human organism. T his knowledge will serve as a basis for the molecular medicine of the next century, leading to new diagnostic and therapeutic tools. This ar ticle will describe the history of the human genome project and will g ive a status report of the international and the German efforts to rea ch the goals.