feasibility of ordering and sequencing clones representing the entire human genome. 

 DOE sponsored in March 1986 an international meeting in Santa Fe. New Mexico. With 

 virtual unanimit\ the participating experts concluded that this objective was meritorious 

 and obtainable and that it would be an outstanding achievement in modern biology. 



The HERAC Recommendation 



Further guidance was sought from DOE"s Health and Environmental Research Advisory 

 Committee (HERAC). which provided its report on the Human Genome Initiative in 

 April 1987. This report urged DOE and the nation to commit to a large, multi- 

 disciplinary, technological undertaking to order and sequence the human genome. 

 This effort would first require significant innovation in the general capability to 

 manipulate DNA. Also required would be major new analytical methods for ordering 

 and sequencing DNA segments, theoretical developments in computer science and 

 mathematical biology, and great expansion in the ability to store and manipulate the 

 information and interface it with other large and diverse genetic databases. The report 

 further recommended that DOE have a leadership role because of its demonstrated 

 expertise in managing complex, long-term multidisciplinary projects, involving 

 both the development of new technologies and coordination of efforts among industries, 

 universities, and its own laboratories. 



The role of the Office of Health and 

 Environmental Research (OHER) in 

 its mission to understand the health 

 effects of radiation and other by- 

 products of energy production was 

 noted in the report. This mission 

 requires fundamental knowledge 

 of the effects of damage to the 

 genome, and it has already led 

 to a number of research and 

 technological developments that are 

 integral components of the human 

 genome mapping and sequencing 

 project: DOE computer and data 

 management expertise initiated and 

 supports the GenBank" DNA 

 sequence repository (cosponsored 

 by the National Institutes of 

 Health); the chromosome-sorting 

 facilities essential to the Genome 

 Initiative were developed and are 

 maintained at DOE laboratories: 

 and within the National Laboratory 

 Gene Library Project, libraries of 



Major DOE Facilities and Resources Relevant 

 to Molecular Biology Research 



Center for X-Ray Optics 



GenBank" Data Sequence Repository 



High Flux Beam Reactor 



Los Alamos Neutron Scattering Center 



Molecular Sciences Research Center 



National Flow Cytometry Resource 



National Laboratory Gene Library Project 



Protein Structure Data Bank 



National Synchrotron Light Source 



Scanning Transmission Electron Microscope Resource BNL 



Scanning Tunneling Microscopy LLNL, ORNL 



Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory Stanford 



LBL 

 LANL 



BNL 

 LANL 



PNL 



LANL 



LANL, LLNL 



BNL 



BNL 



Developing Facilities: 



Advanced Photon Source 

 Advanced Light Source 



ANL 

 LBL 



