100,000 Genome Project launched – towards genomic medicine

On December 10, 2012, then Prime Minister of UK, David Cameron, launched the 100,000 Genome Project, England’s first mission to sequence 100,000 human genomes by the end of 2017.  The initiative is ” paving the way for a digital NHS, where genomics is “driving the move away from a ‘one size fits all’ approach to treatment, towards personalised, or precision medicine, whereby each patient is treated according to their individual genome sequence.” [1, 2]

Prior genome sequencing ventures launched:

• 1990 – The Human Genome Project – completed 2003
• 2008 – 1,000 Genomes Project launched by Wellcome Trust [2, 3, 4, 5]
• 2010 – 10,000 Genome (UK10K) study launched by Wellcome Trust
• Feb 2012 – New York Genome Centre for Alzheimers [8, 9]
• Dec 2012 – 100,000 Genomes Project [6, 7]