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 09.02.2026

MICIU and CNAG celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Human Genome Project

The Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (MICIU), together with the National Centre for Genomic Analysis (CNAG), based at the Barcelona Science Park, and the European initiative EASIGEN-DS, commemorate the first quarter-century of the Human Genome Project with an event to be held on 10 February at the Ministry’s main auditorium, in Madrid. The milestone that revolutionised modern biomedicine marks 25 years since the publication of the first draft of the “book of life” in the prestigious journal Nature on 15 February 2001, followed one day later by Science.

In the early 1990s, the international scientific community faced one of the greatest scientific challenges in history: the Human Genome Project, an initiative that brought together more than 1,000 researchers from around the world to
decipher the 3.2 billion base pairs of human DNA. The challenge was immense, particularly considering the sequencing technologies available at the time. More than a decade later, in February 2001, the first draft of the human genome was
published in the prestigious journals Nature and Science, marking a milestone that would forever change our understanding of human biology.

Now, 25 years after the publication of the first “book of life”, the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (MICIU), the National Centre for Genomic Analysis (CNAG) and the European initiative EASIGEN-DS, coordinated by CNAG, have joined forces to celebrate this scientific milestone with a commemorative event to be held on Tuesday, 10 February, at the MICIU auditorium. The event will include the participation of the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Universities, Juan Cruz Cigudosa García, and the Secretary General for Research, Eva Ortega Paíno.

MICIU structures its commitment to cutting-edge genomic technologies through CNAG, a centre it founded 15 years ago to decipher rare diseases, cancer and many other conditions, thereby contributing to their prevention, diagnosis and treatment,
and positioning Spain at the forefront of biomedical research.

A round table with leading genomics experts

The event will bring together some of the most influential voices in Spanish genomics to analyse the impact and contributions of the Human Genome Project to science and medicine over the past 25 years, as well as the challenges ahead in the era of artificial intelligence. According to Dr Ivo Gut, Director of CNAG: “Twenty-five years on, we are not only sequencing genomes at a speed that would have been unthinkable at the time, but we are also able to interpret complex information to advance our understanding of disease and health, evolution and biological diversity. This is, without doubt, the true legacy of the Human Genome Project.”

The round table will open with one of the two Spanish scientists who took part in the Human Genome Project, Dr Roderic Guigó (Centre for Genomic Regulation), who will share his personal experience in the creation of this first book of life. He will be followed by Dr Encarna Guillén (Hospital Sant Joan de Déu), who will address its application to human health and the emergence of precision medicine, explaining how modern genomics is transforming the fight against rare diseases and cancer. Dr Fátima Al-Shahrour (National Centre for Oncological Research) will then focus on the challenges of bioinformatics and artificial intelligence in the interpretation of genomic data and its integration with health data and other omics. The round table will close with Dr Tomàs Marquès-Bonet (Institute of Evolutionary Biology, UPF-CSIC), who will move beyond the human species to explore how comparative and evolutionary genomics helps us understand genetic diversity across organisms and ecosystems.

» More information about the event: CNAG website [+]