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The Human Genome Project is a worldwide research effort initiated by the Department of Energy and the National Institutes of Health in 1987 as a multi-disciplinary effort to understand the basis of human heredity. This international collaboration is being carried out at several genome centers located in the United States, England, France and Japan. The focus of the Human Genome Project is the characterization of the human genome by determining the complete nucleotide sequence of our 24 different chromosomes, including the estimated 50,000 to 100,000 genes contained in human DNA.

In the high school classrooms involved in the program, students perform the sophisticated laboratory technique of DNA sequencing. By sequencing DNA, students learn how to read the four-letter genetic alphabet of a specific fragment of DNA. Recently, students completed sequencing DNA from a region on human chromosome 5, as part of an ongoing research project in the laboratory of Mary-Claire King in the Department of Genetics at the University of Washington. This genetic location is known to contain the gene for a form of hereditary deafness that occurs in a Costa Rican family. The students’ results were placed in a national database for human DNA sequences and are now available to researchers in the Human Genome Project in the U.S. and abroad.

Like scientists involved in the Human Genome Project, students participating in the High School Human Genome Program explore the ethical and social issues raised by genome research. Ethicists from the University of Washington's Department of Medical History and Ethics, with input from local genetic counselors and high school teachers involved in the program, developed a curriculum unit that lead students to confront the social and ethical implications of the Human Genome Project. The unit focuses on the complex issues raised by presymptomatic testing in patients at risk for Huntington’s disease and is designed to provide students with a better understanding of the ethical decision-making process and the impact of genetic research on the lives of every day people.

The high school teachers receive the training necessary to carry out the project in their classrooms during a one week summer institute held at the University of Washington, earning three UW graduate credits for their participation in the program. All of the supplies and equipment required for classroom experiments are provided by the program, along with in-class technical support from program staff and volunteer scientists from the University of Washington and Seattle area biotechnology companies.

The program is funded by grants from the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.