[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 68 (Thursday, April 26, 2018)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E543]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    RECOGNIZING THE BROAD INSTITUTE

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. KATHERINE M. CLARK

                            of massachusetts

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, April 26, 2018

  Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, today we celebrate National 
DNA Day, which marks the completion of the Human Genome Project that 
produced the first complete DNA sequence of a human being. On the 15th 
anniversary of this milestone, the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard 
will reach another remarkable achievement: having now sequenced a total 
of 100,000 human genomes since the conclusion of the Human Genome 
Project.
  Connecting MIT, Harvard, the Harvard teaching hospitals, and the life 
sciences and technology industries in Cambridge, MA and beyond, the 
Broad Institute is one of the world's leading biomedical research 
institutions. In the service of its mission to propel the understanding 
and treatment of disease, the Broad Institute is also one of the 
largest producers of human genomic information; it has made more 
genomic data available for health research than any other organization.
  Over the last decade, the Broad Institute has generated about ten 
percent of the world's entire knowledge base of human genomic data. 
Scientists in the United States and around the globe have used its data 
to research the underlying causes of devastating diseases, from common 
conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, and cancer to very rare 
childhood disorders.
  That tremendous progress reflects not only on the Broad Institute, 
but on the wisdom of our government to meaningfully invest in 
biomedicine with its launch of the Human Genome Project in 1990, from 
which we are still reaping the returns.
  I want to thank the Broad Institute for their commitment to science, 
health, and progress. I am incredibly proud to have this institution 
and their historic achievements within my district.

                          ____________________