[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 2]
[House]
[Page 2786]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        THE HUMAN GENOME PROJECT

  (Mr. BURGESS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, just before we left on break, Francis 
Collins came and talked to a small group of us at the Health Caucus one 
morning. Francis Collins, of course Dr. Collins, is the director of the 
National Institutes of Health and the lead of the human genome project 
in the National Institutes of Health when the human genome was finally 
solved a little less than a decade ago. Advances in genomics have 
really been startling, and the project continues to provide much 
excitement. Over 1,800 genes that cause disease have been discovered. 
Whole genomes for cancer cells have been mapped. That is remarkable.
  The promise this research holds to help those suffering or likely to 
suffer from diseases or medical conditions is very real. I cannot 
overstate the significance of these advances. I have no doubt that the 
field of medicine will be revolutionized.
  The technology has certainly evolved since I was a medical student 
some 40 years ago. Things that I would have never thought imaginable 
are now clearly within the reach and grasp of today's practitioner. In 
fact, the young men and women who are medical students and residents 
today, what a world they will live in. The science is going to be 
absolutely fantastic. And, indeed, their ability to relieve human 
suffering is going to be unlike anything that has been known by any 
generation of physicians that has preceded them.

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