The Human Genome Project: The 13-Year Quest to Chart the Mysteries of Human Genetics

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[henriroggeman]

I think it would have been worth mentioning that James Watson, Francis Crick, and Maurice Wilkins would have gotten nowhere without the groundbreaking work of Rosalind Franklin.

[ericwright]

Cell Biologist here. Electrophoresis based sequencing is called Sanger Sequencing. It is immensely laborious. It was all we had for decades. Automated sequencing using Illumina platforms is called Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) and is broadly known as "sequencing by synthesis". They work completely differently and afaik there was no sequencing by synthesis (as it is in NGS) involved at all in the original sequencing of the human genome, as it didn't really come around in its current form until about 2011ish. Now we can sequence a whole human genome in a few hours. There was actually a pretty intense format war similar to VHS vs betamax when NGS first became viable. There were 3-4 competing companies each with their own standard and proprietary technology. Solexa, Roche 454, Illumina, and maybe others. Illumina won out and is now the standard for sequencing

[MissSimsalot]

Always only Crick and Watson get mentioned.
Rosalind Franklin: am I a joke to you?

[ignitionfrn]

1:45 - Chapter 1 - The human genome
3:55 - Chapter 2 - Early discoveries
4:50 - Mid roll ads
6:20 - Chapter 3 - Sequencing DNA
8:05 - Chapter 4 - The human genome project
12:00 - Chapter 5 - The finishing phase
13:15 - Chapter 6 - Completion
14:05 - Chapter 7 - Findings
15:50 - Chapter 8 - The future

[stevenewland]

I started my PhD at the Sanger center a year before it was completed and can still remember the party when it was published. A Few Nobel prize winners were present. Roslin Franklin was rembered by renaming the mrc section to the Roslin Franklin Center for Genomic Research

[JohnSmith]

I did my bit, I was worked on the mapping and sequencing of Chromosomes 9 & 10 at the Sanger centre/Sanger Institute for 4 years. I am proud we beat the commercial version run by Craig Venter & Celera who tried to patent every gene sequence discovered as they went along, then charge researchers a royalty fee on to work on a specific gene. The public projected updated & published our data every 24hrs for free, negating Venter's/Celera's ability to patent gene In the end the Venter could not put his shotgun sequences together without using the mapping data we created at the Sanger & the public project, both projects published in the same data, the Public project in nature with both the mapping and the sequencing data, Venter & Celera in Science and having to give an acknowledgement that their shotgun approach cold not be assembled with out the help of the public projects mapping data (which was like a scaffold to hang the shotgun sequences the public finished sequence was acknowledged to be more accurate 7 with less errors that finally o be fair to Venter, the computer processing power was about 7-10 years behind was was needed for a whole shotgun approach. These days, with so many DNA sequences complete, Shotgun, matching up & identifying nucleotide changes using processing power means a individual's DNA sequence can be processed in a couple of hours, .... I still love Gap4 and miss contig assembly.

[wiltchamberlain]

I remember when they announced that they were going to work on it. It was like, “maybe someday they will be able to do this kind of thing. Don’t hold your breath.”
And then, yeah, it was over a decade later that they finished, it still seemed like, “oh! They finished that already? Damn. That was quick.” It seemed like something that wouldn’t happen in my life when they started.

[penguinista]

The Human Genome Project has already paid for itself in technological development that has sprung from it. It is easy to take for granted the advantages that come from having the whole genome and the technologies that were developed in order to complete it. We determined the genome of COVID-19 immediately, track it as it mutates, and develop RNA vaccines to the specific antigens we decide are important from protein modeling. All those things depend on technology that would certainly not be at the stage it is now without the Project.

[amandajones]

The only thing Watson and Crick discovered was Rosalind Franklin's notes

[CJOwen]

If you took all the blood vessels out of a person and laid them end to end... that person would die.

[Southsaudi]

You should do a video on the A-10 Warthog

[meson]

In 1987 the BBC produced a wonderful historical dramatisation of Watson and Crick's discovery of DNA. It was called _Life Story_ (though it may also be known as _The Race for the Double Helix_ in other parts of the World). It stars Jeff Goldblum and Tim Pigott-Smith. It also shows how Rosalind Franklin was passed over for her part in the discovery.

[BytebroUK]

I cannot believe you mentioned "Crick & Watson" and completely missed out "Rosalind Franklin". You lose two house-points.

[whoshotdk]

Future alien xenoarcheologist: It's such a shame we don't have any DNA examples of this extinct hewmon species. At least we've got these tasty bananas though.

[kathis]

"If you were to type 8 hours a day, at 60 words per minute, it would take around 50 years for you to type the whole human genom."
Well, still faster than the time G.R.R. Martin takes to finish "Game of Thrones"...

[matth]

I remember hearing about this when I was a kid in 3rd grade in 2003, so goddamn cool

[michaelbrown]

You missed out on the most important part. CRISPER is what’s making this map so important. It’s what gives us an ability to modify what we have mapped. You really should do a follow-up explaining how it works and the breakthroughs it’s already had.

[TheDesertraptor]

My PC was part of this parallel computing project. They said we'd cure all the world's ills once we mapped the human gnome.
Still waiting on immortality. But I guess only the mega rich will get that special treatment

[alyssa]

I remember all the hype when The Human Genome Project was first announced when I was a kid. There were supposed to be amazing advancements in medicine, cures for cancers, no more disease! (Typical media hype.) What came out of it was an amazing deep look and better understanding of what makes us tick and why. I was fortunate enough to see the kick off of it as a child and study the results at University as a non-traditional student (ie an adult with a family).

[clemstevenson]

42. All that we have to do now is find out what the question actually was.