The Human Genome Project (HGP) took over 10 years and 3 billion dollars to complete. The end result, in 2001, was a “draft” version of the 3 billion or so DNA “letters” in a single human genome (yes, right around a dollar per letter). Scientist Craig Venter published his own genome at about the same time. Two genomes for billions of dollars: the Future was here, but as unevenly distributed as it could get.
In 1984 we had seen the debut of the Macintosh, the “Computer for the Rest of Us.” In 2007 we started a charitable foundation and began work on the “Genome for the Rest of Us.”
The Alan & Priscilla Oppenheimer Foundation was established “to advance humanity through scientific research and education.” We were incredibly gratified when Harvard’s George Church agreed to meet with us (during Alan’s M.I.T. reunion) to see how we could help with their Personal Genome Project (PGP).
The PGP was “dedicated to creating public resources that everyone can access,” so it fit in perfectly with our goals. We jumped right in to a number of projects. Similar to the way the Macintosh, both directly and indirectly, helped distribute the Future of computing, the PGP has helped distribute the Future of genomics. Here are a few milestones:
- 1990: Human Genome Project starts
- 2001: First drafts of two human genomes
- 2005: Personal Genome Project starts, 10 genomes sequenced
- 2006 23andMe founded
- 2007: Oppenheimer Foundation established, joins PGP
- 2010: Foundation funds its first full genome sequence, at a cost of $7500 (0.0002% of the HGP genome’s cost); part of PGP effort to sequence 1000 genomes
- 2015 President Obama announces the Precision Medicine Initiative (PMI) with a goal of 1 million participants
- 2018 PMI launches as NIH’s “All of Us” program
- 2019 Foundation hosts “All of Us” sessions at AAAS meeting at Southern Oregon University
- 2023 Foundation purchases a $1000 genome sequencer