Scientists are to formally publish today the first detailed assessment of the human genetic map with announcements in several world capitals.
At press conferences to be held in Washington, London, Paris and Berlin - and Tokyo tomorrow - researchers were to provide insights into the findings of a decade-long quest to complete rough drafts of the human genetic blueprint.
The effort has raised both immense hopes for curing diseases and stopping birth defects along with fears of genetic discrimination and selective breeding.
The press conference to be held at a downtown Washington hotel was to take place at 10 a.m. local time (3 p.m. Irish time). Detailed analyses of the research results were released yesterday by the scientific journals Natureand Science.
Nature's editor-in-chief Mr Philip Campbell. "Never before have we published a collection of papers as informative or as breathtaking in the scope of what it reveals about human life."
Last June two competing teams of researchers announced they had separately succeeded in compiling a catalogue of the genetic information contained in human cells. Scientists said they were elated by having reached the milestone.
"I think that the whole genome assembly exceeded our wildest expectations," said Mr Eugene Myers, a scientist from Celera Genomics of Rockville, Maryland, a private company that spearheaded one of the efforts to plot the human genetic roadmap.
Celera began its work to decipher the human genome in 1998, while another government funded effort, the international, multibillion-dollar Human Genome Project, officially began in 1990.
Researchers have learned that the human genome includes some 30,000 genes - merely twice the number that form the genome of a fruit fly.
Today's announcement is likely to be just the beginning, with a steady succession of exciting findings stemming from the human genome likely.
"It's really the beginning of the story," said Eric Nestler, a neuroscientist at the University of Texas Southwestern in Dallas.
AFP