The Human Genome Project was initiated in 1990 in the US with the goal to identify the approximately 20,000-25,000 genes in human DNA, determine the sequences of the 3 billion chemical base pairs that make up human DNA, store this information in databases, and improve tools for data analysis. It was initially anticipated that the project would take 15 years to complete, but rapid technological advances accelerated the completion date to 2003. With the Human Genome Project, and subsequent similar projects including the Hap Map, ENCODE, and the 1,000 Genomes Projects, human genetic disease research has entered into a new era. The basis for the exciting achievements is the availability of high-volume sequencing and analysis of the resulting massive amount of data .