The myth of the complete genome is something that is not commonly known to active observers of genomic technologies. (The term ‘active observer’ is from the point of view of one with varying degrees of background in the biological sciences, and is in noway an aspersion.) The ‘first draft’ of the human genome was announced at a Clinton-era press conference on June 26, 2000, and it was an agreement between the two famously competitive individuals (Francis Collins and Craig Venter) representing the public (NIH and DOE) effort and the private one (Celera). This first draft was exactly that – about 90% complete, and the completed version was declared in 2003. This is not to discount the first seminal publications of this draft, as in 2001 when these papers were published (in Science and Nature respectively) the largest previously sequenced genome was 1/25th the size. In other words, the human genome represented a 25-fold leap in size and complexity of anything done to-date.
