Summer 1989

“Approximately 700 of the world’s leading geneticists gathered at the University during the week of June 11 to fit together more pieces in the complex jigsaw puzzle known as the human genome. Using the latest computer technology, leaders of the 10th International Workshop of Human Gene Mapping tabulated extensive new data concerning the position of human genes on chromosomes. Thus far, the positions of about 1,700 of the estimated 100,000 human genes have been verified. The amount of data concerning the genome has doubled every three years in the decade-and-a-half since mapping began.

“The workshop was hosted by Frank H. Ruddle, Ph.D., the Sterling Professor of Biology and Human Genetics, and Kenneth K. Kidd, Ph.D., professor of human genetics, biology and psychiatry. Professor Ruddle organized the first such international workshop at Yale in 1973. Since then, the meetings have been held every other year at different locations around the world.

“The U.S. government has committed $200 million a year for the next 15 years to map the structure of human genes, an effort that already has helped physicians better understand such inherited diseases as Duchenne’s muscular dystrophy, cystic fibrosis and some forms of cancer.”