NHGRI's Oral History Collection: Interview with Bob Waterston and Jane Rogers

Robert Waterston, M.D, Ph.D., is a professor of genome sciences at the University of Washington. Dr. Waterston was a key figure in the Human Genome Project from its inception in the late 1980s to completion in 2003. He received one of the first project-related grants to sequence the worm genome in 1989. As director of the Washington University Genome Sequencing Center during the HGP, Dr. Waterston oversaw crucial large-scale mapping and sequencing efforts for multiple genomes, including the human genome. The Washington University genome sequencing center played a critical role in the data production and in the February 2001 publication of the “Initial sequencing and analysis of the human genome” in Nature. He was then centrally involved in subsequent efforts to finish the human genome.

Jane Rogers, Ph.D., is the former head of sequencing at the Wellcome Trust, Sanger Institute. She was also part of the International Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium. In her position at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Dr. Rogers worked closely with John Sulston to oversee the U.K.’s contribution to the Human Genome Project. Dr. Rogers was instrumental in establishing and in managing the Sanger Institute’s large-scale human sequencing infrastructure. She also directed the mouse and zebrafish genome efforts, among others, at the Sanger Institute.

In this interview with NHGRI Historian, Chris Donohue, Ph.D., Drs. Waterston and Rogers discuss their respective roles in the Human Genome Project, the critical events leading up to the completion of the “draft sequence” and the publication of the “draft sequence” paper and the “companion papers.” They also address challenges they overcome in the Human Genome Project in 1999 and 2000, and the legacies of the “draft sequence” paper and the Human Genome Project for genetics and molecular biology.

Credits:
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Executive Producer/Interviewer/Historian: Christopher Donohue, Ph.D.
Assistant Producers: Kris Wetterstrand, M.S., Mukul Nerurkar
Producer/Videographer/Editor: Alvaro Encinas
Voiceover (Interview Questions): Zachary Utz, M.A.