Translating the genetic library: the goals, methods, and applications of the Human Genome Project.

The information produced by the Human Genome Project will have profound effects on the medical community, biotechnology companies, research scientists, and others. The ultimate goal of the project is to locate the approximately 100,000 genes that contain the instructions for creating a human being. Once these genes are found, they can be studied to increase understanding of their role in health and disease. Information about the location of a gene, its function, and its connection to disease will be stored in a variety of computer databases. Medical librarians can help assure that this information reaches the people who need it. To aid in this effort, this paper provides an introduction to the Human Genome Project: its goals, examples of methods used to achieve these goals, the types of information produced, and examples of how this information can be used in medicine and basic research. Because rapid research progress makes it difficult to predict the exact course of the project, this paper will focus on the first five years, 1990-1995.