Economic Impact Of The Human Genome Project

2.2.1 Cancer

One of the most impactful benefits of the HGP was its aiding in the diagnosis, treatment and monitoring of the treatments for cancer as it is a genomic disease. Whilst a cure is still unknown, the origins of numerous previously unknown cancers have been identified using a person’s tumor. This means that in the past doctors were treating oncology patients emperically, meaning with general cancer treatments, as they tried to guess the origins of the cancerous cell. Now due to the HGP they are able to identify which gene caused the mutation and which tissue it originated from with 90% accuracy (Johnson, 2015). Scientists have also been able to establish that whilst people may have the same type of cancer at the same stage, different

Personal income generated by HGP (wages and benefits) exceeded $244 billion over the time frame, averaging out to $63,700 income per job-year. Since the HGP's completion in 2003, federal investment in genomic research has actually increased. In 2010 dollars, HGP spending by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Department of Energy (DOE) amounted to $5.6 billion; for the seven years following, federal genomics spending totaled $7.2 billion dollars. In 2010 alone, genomics directly supported more than 51,000 jobs, and indirectly supported more than 310,000 jobs, according to the Battelle study. This created $20 billion in personal income and added $67 billion to the U.S. economy. The government has been successfully repaid for all its investment and currently, due to the success of the Human Genome Project, more funding has been put into Genomics to further these studies.(Gitlin,

The medical field has greatly benefited as a result of the Human genome Project and is continuing to benefit and develop as more projects are being pursued following the HGP. The cost for sequencing is decreasing, and the results produced by the technologies developed are increasing and becoming more accurate. The money spent on improving the technologies for human genome sequencing, has been wisely allocated to the medical field with regards to diagnosis and treatment of diseases and thus creating an opportunity for sequencing to be available to a larger community. Today there are many challenges regarding genetic research and information and the impact that they have on society. From the perspective of ELSI, the costs accquired by investments and funding to complete the HGP wa well placed as the US Department of Energy and the National Institutes of Health, have ensured complete censure of all information for privacy and avoidance of discrimination. The money spent on the HGP has reaped financial benefits by producing more job opportunities, increasing screening analysation of individual genomes and advancing the technology in medicine and biology. Numerous projects have developed from the Human Genome Project which aim to further research in different areas relating to the Human Genome. For example, the functions of human genes, the differences in human genes