NIH assigns new Human Genome Research Institute

The US National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) becomes an official institute in January 1997 when the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Donna E. Shalala signed documents giving the National Center for Human Genome Research (NCHGR) this new name and can now share equal standing with the 27 other  research institutes at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

The initial NCHGR was established in 1989 to carry out NIH’s role in the International Human Genome Project.  The genome sequencing endeavour was conceived in June 1985 at the University of California and launched in 1990, through funding from the NIH and Department of Energy.  The international genome project concluded April 14, 2003.

That same year in 1997 the “NHGRI and other scientists show that three specific alterations in the breast cancer genes BRCA1 and BRCA2 are associated with an increased risk of breast, ovarian and prostate cancers.”