The Human Genome Organisation (HUGO) is a non-profit organization founded in 1988. HUGO represents an international coordinating scientific body in response to initiatives such as the

Human Genome Project The Human Genome Project (HGP) was an international scientific research project with the goal of determining the base pairs that make up human DNA, and of identifying, mapping and sequencing all of the genes of the human genome from both a ...

. HUGO has four active committees, including the

HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee The HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee (HGNC) is a committee of the Human Genome Organisation (HUGO) that sets the standards for human gene nomenclature. The HGNC approves a ''unique'' and ''meaningful'' name for every known human gene, based on a ...

(HGNC), and the HUGO Committee on Ethics, Law and Society (CELS).

History

HUGO was established at the first meeting on genome mapping and sequencing at Cold Spring Harbor in 1988. The idea of starting the organization stemmed from South African biologist

Sydney Brenner Sydney Brenner (13 January 1927 – 5 April 2019) was a South African biologist. In 2002, he shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with H. Robert Horvitz and Sir John E. Sulston. Brenner made significant contributions to wo ...

, who is best known for his significant contributions to work on the genetic code and other areas of molecular biology, as well as winning the 2002

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine () is awarded yearly by the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute for outstanding discoveries in physiology or medicine. The Nobel Prize is not a single prize, but five separate prizes that, acco ...

. A Founding Council was elected at the meeting with a total of 42 scientists from 17 different countries, with Victor A. McKusick serving as founding President. In 2016, HUGO was located at the EWHA Womans University in Seoul, South Korea. In 2020, the HUGO headquarters moved to Farmington, Connecticut, US. HUGO has convened a Human Genome Meeting (HGM) every year since 1996. In partnership with geneticist Yuan-Tsong Chen and Alice Der-Shan Chen, founders of the Chen Foundation, HUGO presents the Chen Award to those with research accomplishments in human genetics and genomics in Asia Pacific. In 2020, HUGO merged with the Human Genomic Variation Society (HGVS) and Human Variome Project (HVP).

Presidents

Ada Hamosh Ada Hamosh (born 1960) is an American pediatrician and geneticist. She is the Frank V. Sutland Professor of Genetics in the Departments of Genetic Medicine and Pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins University. She is a physician-scientist known for re ...

(US) – 2023–present * Charles Lee (South Korea, US) – 2017 to 2023 * Stylianos Antonarakis (Switzerland) – 2012 to 2017 * Edison Liu (Singapore) – 2007 to 2012 * Leena Peltonen (Finland) – 2005 to 2007 *

Yoshiyuki Sakaki is a Japanese molecular biologist. He was the sixth president of Toyohashi University of Technology and an emeritus professor of the University of Tokyo. Sakaki was born in Nagoya. He received a bachelor's degree in biochemistry from the Univer ...

(Japan) – 2002 to 2005 *

Lap-Chee Tsui Lap-Chee Tsui (; born 21 December 1950) is a Chinese-born Canadian geneticist and served as the 14th Vice-Chancellor and President of the University of Hong Kong. Personal life He grew up in Kowloon, Hong Kong and attended . He studied Biolog ...

(Canada) – 2000 to 2002 * Gert‐Jan van Ommen (Netherlands) – 1998 to 1999 *

Grant Sutherland Grant Robert Sutherland (born 2 June 1945) is a retired Australian human geneticist and cytogeneticist. He was the Director, Department of Cytogenetics and Molecular Genetics, Adelaide Women's and Children's Hospital for 27 years (1975-2002), t ...

(Australia) – 1996 to 1997 *

Thomas Caskey Charles Thomas Caskey (September 12, 1938 – January 13, 2022), also known as C. Thomas Caskey, was an American internist who has been a medical Geneticist and biomedical researcher and entrepreneur. He was a Professor of Molecular and Human ...

(US) – 1993 to 1995 *

Walter Bodmer Sir Walter Fred Bodmer (born 10 January 1936) is a German-born British human geneticist. Early life Bodmer was born in Frankfurt, Germany. He was educated at Manchester Grammar School and went on to study the Mathematical Tripos at the Univ ...

(UK) – 1991 to 1993 *

Victor McKusick Victor Almon McKusick (October 21, 1921 – July 22, 2008) was an American internist and medical geneticist, and Professor of Medicine at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore. He was a proponent of the mapping of the human genome due to its ...

(US), Founding President – 1988 to 1991

HUGO Committee on Ethics, Law and Society

HUGO's Committee on Ethics, Law and Society (CELS) is an interdisciplinary academic working group that is a uniquely positioned to analyse bioethical matters in genomics at a conceptual level and with an international perspective. To this end, CELS mission is to explore and inform professional discourse on the ethical aspects of genetics and genomics, normally though scholarly engagement, thought-provoking papers, and policy guiding statements. The first meeting of the HUGO Ethics Committee took place in Amsterdam in October 1992, chaired by Nancy Wexler (Columbia University). In 2010, under the leadership of then HUGO president Edison Liu (The Jackson Laboratory) and a new chair Ruth Chadwick (Cardiff University), the committee became the HUGO Committee on Ethics, Law and Society (CELS). Benjamin Capps was nominated to be the present chair at the HUGO Human Genome Meeting, held in Barcelona in 2017.

Chairs

2017–present
Benjamin Capps
(UK, Canada) 2010–2017: Ruth Chadwick (UK) 1996–2008: Bartha Knoppers (Canada) 1992–1996: Nancy Wexler (US)

Statements & Opinions

The Human Genome Organisation (HUGO) and a vision for Ecogenomics: the Ecological Genome Project
Human Genomics
17: 115), 2023 The Human Genome Organisation (HUGO) and the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic
Human Genomics
15:12), 2021 Statement on Bioinformatics and Capturing the Benefits of Genome Sequencing for Society
Human Genomics
13, 24), 2019 Falling giants and the rise of gene editing: ethics, private interests and the public good
Human Genomics
11, 20), 2017 Ethical issues of CRISPR technology and gene editing through the lens of solidarity
British Medical Bulletin
122(1): 17-29), 2017 Imagined Futures: Capturing the Benefits of Genome Sequencing for Society
Technical Report
2013 Statement on Supreme Court: Genes are not Patentable, June 2013 Statement on Pharmacogenomics (PGx): Solidarity, Equity and Governance
Life Sciences, Society and Policy
3, 44), April 2007 Statement on Stem Cells
Eubios Ethics Institute
, November 2004 Statement on the scope of gene patents, research exemption, and licensing of patented gene sequences for diagnostics ( Journal international de bioéthique et d'éthique des sciences, Sep-Dec;14(3-4): 201-5), 2003 Statement on Human Genomic Databases
Eubios Journal of Asian and International Bioethics
13: 99), December 2003 Statement in Gene Therapy Research

11: 98-99), April 2001 Statement on Benefit Sharing
Clinical Genetics
58(5): 364-6), April 2000 Statement on Cloning

9: 70), March 1999 Statement on DNA Sampling: Control and Access

8: 56-57), February 1998 Statement on the Principled Conduct of Genetics Research

1996

References

External links

HUGO homepage

HGNC homepage

CELS homepage
{{Authority control Genomics organizations International medical and health organizations International organisations based in Switzerland