In 1953, James Watson and Frances Crick determined the physical structure of DNA consisted of two linked strands, the double helix. The discovery led to the first complete DNA sequencing by Frederick Sanger who will receive a Nobel Prize in chemistry for his work in genomic research.
The National Institute of Health (NIH) jumped on the DNA bandwagon in 1988 when an advisory committee was formed for the purpose of genomic research analysis. In 1989, the committee established the National Center for Human Genome Research renamed the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI). The committee enlisted James Watson to head the Human Genome Project established in 1990.
December 1999 in Human Research History, BMJ Publishing released the news that scientists working on the Human Genome Project decoded the first complete human chromosome. BMJ 1999;319:1453
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