Top �� What's up around the Prime Minister �� April, 2003

Report to the Prime Minister on the Completion of the Decoding of the Human Genome Monday, April 14, 2003 Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi welcomed a team of researchers headed by Yoshiyuki Sakaki, Project Director of the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (RIKEN) and received reports on the completion of the decoding of the human genome (genetic information on human beings) at the Prime Minister's Official Residence. The decoding of the human genome is expected to have various possibilities to the area of medical services and health care. The decoding work had been advanced as the International Human Genome Project in which the related research institutions of six countries including Japan, the United States, and European countries had jointly participated. This was a report to Prime Minister Koizumi by researchers who have played a central role in the research in Japan on the completion of the decoding work, before the research institutions which had participated in the International Human Genome Project announce the results and achievements of the research to the world upon the completion of the decoding of the human genome. At the meeting, Mr. Sakaki presented a set of 24 CD-ROMs that contains information on all of the results of the decoding of the human genome and a commemorative panel to Prime Minister Koizumi.