Progress, and Applications of the Human Genome Project Sponsored
by the U.S. Department of Energy Human Genome Program Human
Genome News Archive Edition Human Genome News, January-June
1997; 8:(3-4) At the January 1997 Conference on Small Genomes:
Sequencing, Functional Characterization, and Comparative
Genomics, over 250 participants gathered on Hilton Head Island
to discuss recent progress and future directions in this
emerging and exciting area of research. As stated by Craig
Venter [The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR)] in the
opening session, small-genome research is growing exponentially,
and a new era of biological insight is emerging because of it.
This first meeting on small genomes was sponsored by TIGR and
organized by Claire Fraser (TIGR), Hamilton O. Smith (Johns
Hopkins University Medical School), and E. Richard Moxon (Oxford
University). Selected meeting highlights follow. Plasmodium
falciparum, the organism causing 300 million to 500 million new
cases of malaria each year, contains over 5