Genome Research - Government Involvement

Government Involvement

The US portion of the Human Genome Project was funded mostly by the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Energy. The estimated cost at the outset was $ 3 billion dollars, a purse that does not come without political strings tied to it. When the government funds research it holds the right to regulate that research.

In the case of the HGP, this ensured that all research conducted with public funding would be made immediately public. It also caused political battles over money for competing scientists trying to finish the genome sequence first. Ultimately, many scientists became lobbyists, and politicians learned some necessary biology.