Six percent in 6

Following the announcement earlier this year of the completion of the human genome project, a paper in the October 23 Nature reports the work by Andy Mungall, Stephan Beck, and 169 colleagues at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in analyzing and mapping the complete sequence of human chromosome 6, the largest chromosome published so far (Nature, 425:805-811, 2003).

“This represents the culmination of 10 years of research from my first grant in October 1993,” Stephan Beck, head of Human Sequencing at the Sanger Institute, told The Scientist in an E-mail. “To stand here, a decade later, and see the full sequence and—more important—the full catalogue of genes is as exciting as it is humbling.”

“It's rewarding to see the largest human chromosome sequenced so far finally finished,” said Project Leader Andy Mungall in an E-mail to The Scientist. “The complete sequence of chromosome 6 will facilitate the identification of all ...