Cracking the human code | Human Genome Project

It all began in 1953 at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge as Francis Crick and James Dewey Watson tried to make their model of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) fit together. They concluded that DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) is made up of a double helix of sugar and phosphate 'backbones' joined by complementary sequences of base pairs – the letters of the genetic code Photograph: Science & Society Picture Librar/Getty Images Photograph: Science & Society Picture Librar/guardian.co.uk Francis Crick (left) and James Watson (right) in 1993 Photograph: Pierre Perrin/Corbis Photograph: Pierre Perrin/guardian.co.uk Automation has been central to the massive enterprise of sequencing the blueprints of living creatures. This early PCR (polymerase chain reaction) machine synthesised usable quantities of DNA from minuscule initial samples Photograph: Science & Society Picture Librar/Getty Images Photograph: Science & Society Picture Librar/guardian.co.uk An early DNA synthesiser. In the 1980s machines like this were used to build short stretches of synthetic DNA Photograph: Science & Society Picture Librar/Getty Images Photograph: Science & Society Picture Librar/guardian.co.uk Francis Collins, former director of the Human Genome Project, which began its mission in 1990. A parallel, private sequencing effort was undertaken by the Celera Corporation under Craig Venter Photograph: Michael Ventura/Alamy Photograph: Michael Ventura/guardian.co.uk A technician in the sequencing laboratory at the J. Craig Venter Institute in Rockville, Maryland Photograph: Larry Downing/Reuters/Corbis Photograph: Larry Downing/Reuters/guardian.co.uk Loading a DNA sequencing machine Photograph: Larry Downing/Reuters/Corbis Photograph: Larry Downing/Reuters/guardian.co.uk An Illumina clustering station genome analyser and its operator (left) Photograph: Larry Downing/Reuters/Corbis Photograph: Larry Downing/Reuters/guardian.co.uk A human genome map featuring chromosome 16 Photograph: Martin Shields/Alamy Photograph: Martin Shields/guardian.co.uk Craig Venter (left), President Bill Clinton and Francis Collins at the White House on 26 June 2000. Clinton announced that the Human Genome Project and Celera had both completed a first draft of the human genome . Tony Blair (monitor, top left) held a simultaneous press conference at 10 Downing Street. The leaders said the information from the working draft would be freely available for all Photograph: Ron Sachs/CNP/Corbis Photograph: Ron Sachs/CNP/guardian.co.uk Professor Robert May, left, the UK government's chief scientific officer, and Mike Dexter, director of the Wellcome Trust, share an infomal moment before the video link between Downing Street and the White House Photograph: Christine Nesbitt/AP Photograph: Christine Nesbitt/guardian.co.uk Venter and Collins on the cover of Time magazine, 3 July 2000 Photograph: Gregory Heisler/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Image Photograph: Gregory Heisler/Time & Life Pictures/guardian.co.uk John Sulston led the UK branch of the international sequencing effort. Here he is at his laboratory at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute near Cambridge in October 2002, after the announcement that he had won a share of that year's Nobel Prize in medicine or physiology Photograph: Chris Young/PA Photograph: Chris Young/guardian.co.uk A chromatograph plotting the position of known genes prepared by the Medical Research Council in Cambridge. In April 2003 scientists announced that the decoding of the human genome was virtually complete, two years ahead of schedule Photograph: Science & Society Picture Librar/Getty Images Photograph: Science & Society Picture Librar/guardian.co.uk Francis Collins (left) and John Sulston at the Science Museum in London on 24 June 2010 to mark 10 years since the publication of the first draft, and to launch a new gallery, 'Who Am I?' Photograph: Martin Argles/Guardian Photograph: Martin Argles/guardian.co.uk Twin humans Jess (blue necklace) and Laura Tilli look at a model of the DNA double helix at the Science Museum's 'Who Am I?' gallery. As identical twins they share the same DNA blueprint Photograph: Martin Argles/Guardian Photograph: Martin Argles/guardian.co.uk