March 1986 US Department of Energy (DoE) holds meeting in Santa Fe to discuss plans to sequence the human genome.

April 1987 Advisory panel at DoE suggests spending $1 billion on genomics over seven years. Small-scale genome programme starts within DoE.

February 1988 Support for Human Genome Project (HGP) appears in report from US National Research Council.

March 1988 National Institutes of Health (NIH) announces first genome sequencing efforts.

April 1988 Congressional Office of Technology Assessment endorses Human Genome Project.

September 1988 Office of Human Genome Research established in NIH. Nobel prizewinner James Watson, co-discoverer of the double helix structure of DNA, appointed as its head.

October 1989 NIH establishes National Center for Human Genome Research (NCHGR), again with Watson at its helm.

April 1990 NIH and DoE publish five-year mapping and sequencing plan for 1990–1995 costing a projected $200 million a year.

July 1991 Craig Venter, then at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, part of NIH, reveals that NIH has applied for patents on isolated DNA fragments from brain tissue, sequenced in his lab. Watson states his opposition to these ‘expressed sequence tag’ patents, saying that automated sequencing machines “could be run by monkeys”.

April 1992 Watson resigns as head of NCHGR in the wake of this dispute, and following allegations that his holdings of biotech stocks represented a conflict of interest. Francis Collins of the University of Michigan appointed as his replacement.

June 1992 Venter leaves NIH to set up The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR) in Rockville, Maryland. SmithKline Beecham provides $125 million to finance TIGR and to develop its findings commercially through a company called Human Genome Sciences.

July 1992 Britain's Wellcome Trust emerges as a major player in genomics by announcing funding of £50 million for projects including sequencing of the nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans. HGP is by this time a global endeavour, involving government- and charity-funded scientists from many developed nations.

October 1993 NIH and DoE publish revised plan for 1993–1998. Goal set of 80 megabases of DNA sequence by end of 1998. Full completion of human genome sequence set for 2005.

October 1993 Wellcome Trust and UK Medical Research Council open Sanger Centre at Hinxton Hall, south of Cambridge, to sequence the human genome and those of model organisms.

September 1994 French and American researchers publish a complete genetic linkage map of the human genome, one year ahead of schedule.

December 1995 Another collaboration, again led by scientists from the United States and France, publishes a physical map of the human genome containing 15,000 marker sequences.

February 1996 At a meeting in Bermuda, international HGP partners agree to release sequence data into public databases within 24 hours.

April 1996 International consortium announces complete genome sequence of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

January 1997 NCHGR renamed as National Human Genome Research Institute.

June 1997 TIGR breaks links with Human Genome Sciences following tensions over publication policy.

May 1998 Venter announces formation of a company — later named as Celera — to sequence human genome “within three years”. Venter says he will use an ambitious ‘whole-genome shotgun’ method, but Celera's data access policy will not follow the Bermuda declaration.

May 1998 Wellcome Trust responds by announcing that it will double its support for HGP, taking on responsibility for one third of the sequencing.

October 1998 NIH and DoE publish goals for 1998–2003: one third (1 gigabase) of human sequence and ‘working draft’ of the remainder of the genome by end of 2003, full sequence by end of 2003.

December 1998 Researchers in Britain and the United States announce genome sequence of C. elegans.

December 1998 NIH and Wellcome Trust block proposed collaboration between Celera and DoE, arguing that the terms would conflict with HGP's open data access policy.

March 1999 NIH brings forward planned date for working draft to spring 2000. NIH and Wellcome Trust announce end of ‘pilot phase’ and start of full sequencing. Costs reduced to 20–30 cents per base.

September 1999 NIH launches project to sequence mouse genome.

November 1999 HGP celebrates sequencing of one-billionth base of human DNA.

December 1999 First complete human chromosome sequence — for chromosome number 22 — published. Celera and HGP discuss possible collaboration.

Work in progess:data have accumulated rapidly but the public sequence is far from finished. Credit: SOURCE: EBI/NCBI

January 2000 Celera announces compilation of DNA sequence covering 90% of human genome.

March 2000 Celera and academic collaborators release “substantially complete” sequence of the fruitfly Drosophila melanogaster, achieved using whole-genome shotgun method.

March 2000 Plans for HGP and Celera to collaborate founder amid considerable acrimony. Data access policy is again the stumbling block.

March 2000 HGP announces successful sequencing of two billion bases of human genome.

April 2000 Celera announces completion of ‘raw sequencing stage’ of human genome from one individual.

May 2000 HGP consortium led by German and Japanese researchers publish complete sequence of chromosome 21.

June 2000 HGP and Celera jointly announce working draft of human genome sequence.