One decade on - sequencing the Human Genome
25 June, 2010
Tomorrow marks the 10 year anniversary of sequencing the human genome. Decades of Medical Research Council (MRC) research into DNA and the human genome have led to the development of technologies such as DNA sequencing, fingerprint and chip technology. MRC researchers have played a leading role in all stages of the journey in DNA research and its outcomes for society.
Building on the expertise of scientists based at its units, the MRC aims to further the understanding of links between genetics and disease. These insights will help to better understand the tendency for disease, predict responses to treatments and develop new drugs.
The story of DNA
1953 Professor James Watson and Dr Francis Crick, working in the MRC’s unit at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge, famously described the structure of DNA in the scientific journal Nature in April 1953. The work owed a substantial debt to Dr Rosalind Franklin and Professor Maurice Wilkins at the MRC Biophysics Unit at King’s College London. The discovery transformed scientists’ understanding of human diseases and treatments and triggered the development of new DNA technologies with enormous economic and health benefits. Professors Watson and Wilkins and Dr Crick won the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for this work.
1960s Determining the structure of DNA laid the foundation for a genetic revolution that went on to establish the three-letter DNA ‘codons’ which form the basis of instructions for building proteins.
1970s MRC scientist Dr Frederick Sanger’s DNA sequencing technique, alongside other methods to manipulate and analyse DNA, gave scientists the basic toolkit to begin exploring the DNA blueprint. Dr Sanger won two Nobel Prizes for this and further work on the structure of proteins.
1984 DNA fingerprinting technology was invented by MRC-funded scientist Sir Alec Jeffreys at the University of Leicester. His invention has helped to push forward the fields of genetics and genomics and has led to research into genetic markers of human diseases.
1998 Building on Dr Sanger’s work, UK and US researchers including Dr Sydney Brenner and Sir John Sulston from the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology finished sequencing the genome of the worm, C. elegans – the first complete sequence of a multi-cellular organism.
2000 The first draft of the human genome sequence was published under the direction of Sir John Sulston at the Cambridge Sanger Centre. Sir John Sulston and Dr Sydney Brenner, along with Professor Robert Horvitz, won a Nobel Prize for their work into how genes regulate organ development and how cells are programmed to die, which is critical for the understanding of diseases.
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