Human Ge ‧ nome Proj ‧ ect, the /ˌhjuːmən ˈdʒiːnəʊm ˌprɒdʒekt ˌprɑː-/ BrE AmE
an international scientific project that started in 1988. Its aim was to discover the ↑ sequence of the human ↑ genome (=to find and describe every gene in every chromosome in the human body) , which it successfully did in April 2003. Scientists are now working on finding out the purpose of every gene, and trying to find out which genes cause particular diseases.