The HGP and Celera both said there were 30, 000 protein-coding genes, a mere one-third of previous estimates.

FORBES: Magazine Article

When the HGP and Celera published their data, they had already announced the completion of their gene sequences from the White House lawn.

FORBES: Gene Mappers May Have Missed Half The Genes

Celera and the HGP tried to do something radical, to sequence all of the DNA in which genes are coded from end to end without omitting a single letter.

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New research from several fronts suggests that the Human Genome Project (HGP) and Celera (nyse: CRA - news - people) may have missed tens of thousands of genes.

FORBES: Magazine Article

The software both Celera and the HGP ran on their supercomputers relied on new genes being similar either to known human genes or to genes found in animal genomes (like those of the mouse), Velculescu says.

FORBES: Gene Mappers May Have Missed Half The Genes

"This is the first time that we've had a complete chapter in the human instruction book, and that's pretty amazing, " said Dr Francis Collins, from the US National Institutes of Health and who chairs the HGP.

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The HGP published its draft reading of all the bases and locations of about 30, 000 genes early in 2001, shortly after one of the leading UK scientists on the project, Dr John Sulston, was told he too would receive a knighthood.

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Back then, Celera Genomics (nyse: CRA - news - people ) and the publicly funded Human Genome Project (HGP) had yet to show off their drafts of the human DNA sequence and Celera's market cap was nearly eight times what it is now.

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No one is accusing either Celera or the HGP of simply failing to notice large swaths of DNA. Quite the contrary, everyone seems to agree they did a remarkable job transcribing the 3 billion rungs on the DNA molecule, which is shaped like a long, twisted ladder.

FORBES: Gene Mappers May Have Missed Half The Genes