Events / 20th anniversary of publishing the human genome to the internet
Historic images of Jim Kent, David Haussler and UCSC's posting of the draft human genome sequence to the internet

20th anniversary of publishing the human genome to the internet

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On July 7, 2020, it will be 20 years since the publication of the human genome to the Internet.

We invite you to take a moment to commemorate this effort, and consider how UC Santa Cruz led the effort to ensure that it would be free and available to everyone, everywhere, forever.

June 22, 2000: Jim Kent assembles the human genome sequence using his 10,000-line computer program in the garage office of his Seabright home.

July 7, 2000: The UCSC genome bioinformatics group makes history by releasing the first working draft of the human genome sequence on the web. Scientists download half a trillion bytes of information from the UCSC genome server in the first 24 hours. Pictured are: Bioinformatics department graduate student Jim Kent; Professor David Haussler, undergraduate student Patrick Gavin (orange jumpsuit) and graduate student Scotfree Kennedy.

David Haussler pictured in 2000 with the Dell computer cluster used for the assembly of the first human genome.

January 2001: Copy of first draft of the human genome sequence burned onto a CD-ROM at UCSC is presented to President Clinton and deposited in the Smithsonian.

July 2000: Network traffic in July, 2000.  Blue:  All web traffic at the University.  Green: downloads of human genome.