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James D. Watson, PhD; Robert Mullan Cook-Deegan, MD

JAMA. 1990;263(24):3322-3324.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

THE HUMAN genome project is a "public good" in the best sense. The purpose of the project is to construct common resources for the study of human genetics. The first fruits will be the development of several kinds of maps of the human genome, and those of other organisms, to permit rapid isolation of genes for further study about DNA structure and function.

The major impact of the genome project on medicine will be a slow but steady conceptual evolution—a change in the way that we think about disease and normal physiology. A century ago, a revolution in medicine was in full stride following the discovery of infectious organisms and the dawn of bacteriology. Over the course of the century, the conceptual base of medicine has broadened from gross anatomy of organs to cellular biology to dissection of biochemical pathways. The next step is to study the most fundamental elements . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
From the National Center for Human Genome Research, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md.

Footnotes
Reprint requests to National Center for Human Genome Research, National Institutes of Health, Bldg 38A, Room 613, Bethesda, MD 20892 (Dr Watson).

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