[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 82 (Monday, June 26, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1118]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     CONGRATULATIONS ON THE COMPLETION OF THE HUMAN GENOME PROJECT

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                        HON. SHEILA JACKSON-LEE

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, June 26, 2000

  Ms. Jackson-Lee of Texas. Mr. Speaker, today I recognize the 
tremendous accomplishment of our world's scientific community under the 
leadership of the United States' private and public research resources 
at their completion of the historic Human Genome Project's mapping of 
human Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA).
  The complete map of human DNA, which is a collection of 100,000 
genes, marks the beginning of a new era for mankind. This momentous day 
may seem ordinary to those who do not know what the world was like 
without the wheel, penicillin, electric light bulb, radio, television, 
or computers. Because of the work done by the laboratories and 
researchers primarily in this country in conjunction with partners in 
other nations have completed the diagram for the human body's operating 
instructions.
  Today, when the sun rose in the East the world was fundamentally no 
different than it had been from the start of the previous century. 
However, at the setting of the sun in the West, the world now has bold 
new horizons in human health improvements and medical breakthroughs, 
because of the President' announcement that the Human Genome Project 
had assembled a working draft of the sequence of the human genome.
  Today's announcement means that 97% of the human genome is know know, 
which precedes the process of finding out what are proper and improper 
arrangements of DNA links for health persons. We know that keys to 
cures of dreaded human illnesses such as cancer, diabetes, and 
degenerative brain disorders reside in the DNA of human beings. 
However, along with the crippling physical debilitating conditions 
caused by spinal cord injury and brain trauma can now at long last not 
be seen as an end to promising lives.
  I would like to make special mention of the contributions of Dr. 
Richard A. Gribbs and his colleagues at the Human Genome Project at the 
Baylor College of Medicine Human Genome Sequencing Center, located in 
the City of Houston, Texas. Through their collaborative work with 
hundreds of other researchers around the country the meticulous process 
was begun that created by concatenation cDNA sequencing the blueprint 
for human DNA. The blueprints for human DNA. The blueprints were 
reproduced in the form of clones that could represent segments of human 
DNA to create maps. After the study of sections of DNA the process has 
begun to understand how each of us is different. The critical questions 
of survival and death can be found in those links, which form human 
DNA.
  More than anything else today's announcement gives each of us hopes 
that our children's tomorrow will be brighter than all of our 
yesterday's. We must be sure that we legislate the proper application 
of the medical achievements, which come from this effort, which must 
also remain within the reach of the poor of our nation. This goal 
should be a centerpiece of the continued federal support of the Human 
Genome Project and spin off medical technologies.
  Therefore, I encourage my colleagues to join me in celebrating a 
momentous accomplishment and offering well wishes for the work, which 
must follow.

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