The Human Genome Project Walter Gilbert who is a molecular biologist became interested in undertaking the Human Genome Project (HGP) in 1987. Robert Kanigel of the New York Times Magazine wrote "This project ... would reveal the precise biochemical makeup of the entire genetic material, or genome, of a human being ... it would grant insight into human biology previously held only by god.” (McMurry, 758) The plan was to create a map or library of human deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). About the same time the United States government began taking an interest with the HGP. In the United States of America the Department of Energy and the National Institutes of Health were the mai