Grand Celebration

<p>In 1990 scientists began working together on one of the largest biological research projects<br />ever proposed. The project proposed to sequence the three billion nucleotides in the human<br />genome. The Human Genome Project took 13 years and was completed in April 2003 at a<br />cost of approximately three billion dollars. It was a major scientific achievement that forever<br />changed the understanding of our own nature. The sequencing of the human genome was in<br />many ways a triumph for technology as much as it was for science. From the Human Genome<br />Project powerful technologies have been developed (e.g. microarrays and next generation<br />sequencing) and new branches of science have emerged (e.g. functional genomics and<br />pharmacogenomics) paving new ways for advancing genomic research and medical<br />applications of genomics in the 21st century. The investigations have provided new tests and<br />drug targets as well as insights into the basis of human development and diagnosis/treatment<br />of cancer and several mysterious humans diseases. This genomic revolution is prompting a<br />new era in medicine which brings both challenges and opportunities. Parallel to the<br />promising advances over the last decade the study of the human genome has also revealed<br />how complicated human biology is and how much remains to be understood. The legacy of<br />the understanding of our genome has just begun. To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the<br />essential completion of the Human Genome Project in April 2013 Genes launched this<br />Special Issue which highlights the recent scientific breakthroughs in human genomics with a<br />collection of papers written by authors who are leading experts in the field.</p><p><br />John Burn James R. Lupski<br />Karen E. Nelson and Pabulo H. Rampelotto<br />Guest Editors</p>