"Then, just over two decades ago, the Human Genome Project - the international scientific effort to decode the three billion letters of human DNA - changed everything. Critics at the time called it too expensive, too ambitious, too abstract. And they weren't wrong. It was the largest biology project ever proposed, and scientists hadn't even managed to sequence the smallest bacterial genome yet. But the organizers knew that big plans - moonshots - inspire people and attract funding."
"HGP-write, a nonprofit I cofounded in 2016, is building the technological, ethical, and social infrastructure for large-scale genome writing. SynHG, a UK-led academic consortium announced in 2025, is focused on engineering, developing the pipelines and tools needed to construct chromosomes from scratch. Although different teams, they share the same audacious goal: to one day build a complete and functional human genome."
HGP-read completed in 2003 after 13 years and more than $3 billion to sequence roughly 92% of a human genome. Sequencing transformed biology into an information science, enabling ancestry testing, virus tracking, precision cancer therapies, and personalized medicines. HGP-write, a nonprofit founded in 2016, and SynHG, a UK-led consortium announced in 2025, focus on genome synthesis, engineering pipelines, and constructing chromosomes from scratch. Both initiatives aim to build a complete, functional human genome. Large-scale genome writing requires technological, ethical, and social infrastructure. Genome synthesis could enable new medical therapies, disease resistance, and fundamentally expanded capabilities in biotechnology.
Read at Big Think
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