Tag: dna

June 26, 2000: Human Genome Project Completes “Rough Draft”

Today in 2000, U.S. President Bill Clinton and British Prime Minister Tony Blair jointly announced that the Human Genome Project had completed a "rough draft" sequence. The Human Genome Project was started in 1990 with the purpose of mapping out the complete human genome, with the hope of eventually being able to identify the specific genes that cause genetic disorders, cancer, and other diseases. Originally funded by the United States; countries such as France, China, and the United Kingdom (among others), as well as numerous other private and public entities, eventually joined over the years. It is still to this day the largest collaborative biological…

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June 4, 1984: Extinct Animal Quagga Has Genes Cloned

Today in 1984, scientists at U.C. Berkley successfully cloned small bits of quagga DNA from preserved skin.  It went extinct 100 years prior. While this hasn't led to the species being revitalized (yet), the cloned samples led to many new discoveries about the quagga, such as it being a subspecies of zebra (it was previously thought to have been its own species).   Image Credit: The Quagga Project

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