Inside the body
A single molecule, DNA, encodes the instructions for all life on Earth in just four nucleotide letters: adenine (A), thymine (T), cytosine (C), and guanine (G). Rearrange them and you get the beating cilia of a protozoan or the unimaginably intricate brain of a human being; make one typo and risk chronic disease grotesquely misshapen bodies, or the loss of life itself.
Just a half-century ago, humanity knew very little about the genetic factors of a disease. But in 1865, Gregor Mendel presented the results of his experiments with plant hybridixation and became know as the Father of Genetics. Ever since, interest in what goes on in our genes and DNA fueled the discovery of the nucleus, DNA and its
double helix structure, the genetic code for protein synthesis and so much more. Genetic knowledge and its significance then got linked to its role in many diseases, which led to the mapping of the first genetic disease, Huntington's disease, and the location of the gene that causes cystic fibrosis.
In 1984, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), National Institutes of Health (NIH), and international groups started debating the idea of sequencing the entirety of the human genome.