The 1000 Genomes Project is an international research consortium formed to create the most detailed and medically useful picture to date of human genetic variation. The project involves sequencing the genomes of approximately 1200 people from around the world and receives major support from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Hinxton, England, the Beijing Genomics Institute Shenzhen in China and the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Drawing on the expertise of multidisciplinary research teams, the 1000 Genomes Project will develop a new map of the human genome that will provide a view of biomedically relevant DNA variations at a resolution unmatched by current resources. As with other major human genome reference projects, data from the 1000 Genomes Project will be made swiftly available to the worldwide scientific community through freely accessible public databases.
On 4 September 2008, the co-chairs of the analysis group and overall project co-chairs drafted a letter to the NIH Council about 1000 Genomes Project. This letter, available here, reviews the goals, describes the current status, and provide an update on the critical tasks the Analysis Group must accomplish in order to deliver a valuable community resource and achieve the Project's goals.