The Human Genome Project begins

Beginning in 1984, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), National Institutes of Health (NIH), and international groups held meetings about studying the human genome. In 1988, the National Research Council recommended starting a program to map the human genome. Finally, in 1990, NIH and DOE published a plan for the first five years of an expected 15-year project. The project would develop technology for analyzing DNA; map and sequence human and other genomes .