The Human Genome Organisation
History, Purposes and Membership - Dr. Victor A. McKusick, 1989, Genomics
The Human Genome Organisation (HUGO) was conceived in later April 1988, at the first meeting on genome mapping and sequencing at Cold Spring Harbor. For some time, as the genome initiatives got under way in individual nations, the need for an international coordinating scientific body has been under discussion. The idea of HUGO was particularly Sydney Brenner's, He also suggested the name of the organisation and its rather felicitous acronym.
At a rump session called to discuss the proposal at Cold Spring Harbor on April 30, 1988, Victor McKusick (Baltimore) was asked to serve as founding president. A Founding Council was assembled from among those at the Cold Spring Harbor meeting, supplemented by others, to a total of 42 scientists from 17 countries. In early September 1988, 31 of these scientists met in Montreux, Switzerland, at a hotel within sight of the historic Chateau de Chillion. The members of the Founding Council are indicated by an asterisk in the list of HUGO members at the end. The officers elected at Montreux were as follows: Victor A. McKusick, President; Walter Bodmer, Jean Dausset, and Kenichi Matsubara, Vice Presidents; John Tooze, Secretary; Walter Gilbert, Treasurer (resigned February 15, 1989); and Charles Cantor, Malcolm Ferguson-Smith, Leroy Hood, Lennart Philipson, and Frank Ruddle, Eletced Members to Executive Committee.
HUGO was incorporated in Geneva, Switzerland. As stated in its Articles of Association, "membership of HUGO shall be open to all persons concerned with the human genome or other scientific subjects related to it". It was decided in Montreux to follow an academy model, i.e. to have a limited and elected membership. In elections conducted by mail during the 5 months after Montreux, 178 additional members of HUGO were chosen, bringing the total to 220. The members were drawn from 23 countries; namely Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, East Germany, Finland, France, Greece, Israel, Iceland, Italy, Japan, Norway, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, The Netherlands, UK, USA, USSR and West Germany.
In the words of Norton Zinder, a member of the Founding Council, HUGO is a "U.N. for the human genome". Its purposes were as follows:
- to assist with the coordination of research on the human genome and in particular to foster collaboration between scientists with a view to avoiding unnecessary competition or duplication of effort, and to coordinate this research with parallel studies in model organisms;
- to coordinate and to facilitate the exchange data and biomaterials relevant to human genome research and through a training program, encourage the spreading of related technologies;
- to encourage public debate and provide information and advice on the scientific, ethical, social, legal, and commercial implications of human genome projects.
For the conduct of business of HUGO, three regional offices are being established. The Headquarters office is located in Farmington, Connecticut; the European office in London, UK.
*Genomics 5, 385-387 (1989), reproduced by permission of the author.
HUGO Membership (as of early 1989)
Those in bold and marked with a * are members of the founding council.
| Bruce M. Alberts, USA | Walter Gehring, Switzerland | David Patterson, USA | Stylianos E. Antonarakis, Switzerland |
| Richard Gelinas, USA | Mark L. Pearson, USA | Norman Arnheim, USA | Georgy P. Georgiev, USSR |
| Peter L. Pearson*, The Netherlands | Michael Ashburner, UK | Raymond F. Gesteland, USA | Ulf Pettersson*, Sweden |
| Philip Avner, France | Walter Gilbert*, USA | Lennart Philipson*, West Germany | Richard Axel, USA |
| Walter Goad, USA | Richard Roberts, USA | Francisci J. Ayala, USA | Joseph L. Goldstein, USA |
| Elizabeth B. Robson*, UK | David Baltimore, USA | Peter N. Goodfellow, UK | Thomas H. Roderick, USA |
| Bart G. Barrell, UK | Yoram Groner, Israel | Giovanni Romeo, Italy | Alexander A. Bayev, USSR |
| Francois Gros, France | Hans-Hilger Ropers, The Netherlands | Arthur L. Beaudet, USA | Frank Groveld, UK |
| Leon E. Rosenburg, USA | Paul Berg, USA | Karl-Heinz Grzeschik*, West Germany | Janet D. Rowley, USA |
| Kare Berg, Norway | James F. Guselle, USA | Frank H. Ruddle*, USA | Georgio Bernadi, France |
| John L. Hamerton, Canada | Yoshiyuki Sakaki, Japan | Adrian Bird, Austria | Nicholas Hastie, UK |
| Joseph Sambrook, USA | Frecerick R. Blattner, USA | Michael Hayden, Canada | Federick Sanger, UK (Declined) |
| Walter Bodmer*, UK | Bernard Hirt*, Switzerland | David Schlessinger, USA | Lars Bolund, Denmark |
| Tasuku Honjo*, Japan | Charles R. Scriver, Canada | Piet Boorst*, The Netherlands | Leroy E. Hood*, USA |
| Peter Seeburg, West Germany | Dirk Bootsma, The Netherlands | David E. Housman, USA | Susan W. Serjeantson, Australia |
| David Botstein, USA | Peter Humphries, Ireland | Nobuyoshi Shimizu*, Japan | Sydney Brenner*, UK |
| Michael Hunkapiller, USA | Thomas B. Shows*, USA | Roy J. Britten, USA | Yoji Ikawa, Japan |
| Louis Siminovitch, Canada | Michael S. Brown, USA | Francois Jacob*, France | Maxine F. Singer, USA |
| William R.A. Brown, UK | Alec J. Jeffreys, UK | Marcello Siniscalco, USA | W. Ted Brown, USA |
| Nancy A. Jenkins*, USA | Robert L. Sinsheimer, USA | George Brownlee, UK | Trefor Jenkins, South Africa |
| Mark H. Skolnick, USA | Gail A.P. Bruns, USA | Bertrand Jordan, France | Cassandra Smith, USA |
| George F. Cahill, Jr.*, USA | ZFotis C. Kafatos*, Greece | Cedric A.B. Smith, UK | Graham Cameron, West Germany |
| Y.W. Kan, USA | Oliver Smithies, USA | Howard M. Cann, France | Minoru Kanehisa, Japan |
| Ellen SOlomon, UK | Charles R. Cantor*, USA | Haig H. Kazazian, Jr., USA | Edwin M. Southern*, UK |
| Mario Capecchi, USA | Kenneth R. Kidd, USA | Michel Steinmetz, Switzerland | C. Thomas Caskey*, USA |
| Lev L. Kisselev, USSA | John Silston, UK | Bruce Cattanach, UK | George Klein*, Sweden |
| Grant R. Sutherland*, Australia | Luca Cavalli-Sforza, USA | Yuji Kohara, UK | Eugene D. Sverdlov, USSR |
| Webster K. Cavenee*, Canada | Raju S. Kucherlapati, USA | Glenys Thomson, USA | Howard Cedar, Israel |
| Louis M. Kunkel, USA | Shirley Tilghman, USA | Pierre Chambon*, France | Peter A. Lalley, USA |
| Glauco Tocchine-Valentine*, Italy | Verne M. Chapman, USA | Jean-Marc Lalouel, USA | Susumu Tonegawa, USA |
| George Church, USA | Eric Lander, USA | John Tooze*, West Germany | Daniel Cohen, France |
| Mark Lathrop, France | Lap-Chee Tsui, Canada | Francis S. Collins*, USA | David H. Ledbetter, USA |
| Christoper Tyler-Smith, UK | John Collins, West Germany | Philip Leder, USA | Nguyen Van Cong, France |
| P. Michael Conneally, USA | Hans Lehrach, UK | Herman van den Berghe, Belgium | Howard J. Cooke, UK |
| Leonard S. Lerman, USA | Alex van der Eb, The Netherlands | Andrew Coulson, UK | Peter Little, UK |
| Marvin van Dilla, USA | Charles Coutelle, East Germany | Mary Lyon*, UK | Gert Jan van Ommen, The Netherlands |
| David R. Cox, USA | Jacob V. Maizel, USA | Akiyoshi Wada, Japan | Diane W. Cox, Canada |
| Jean-Louis Mandel, France | Douglas C. Wallace, USA | Ian Craig, UK | Tom Maniatis, USA |
| Dorothy Warburtin, USA | Jean Dausset*, France | Kenichi Matsubara*, Japan | John J. Wasmuth, USA |
| Kay E. Davies, UK | Allan M. Maxam, USA | James D. Watson*, USA | Ronald W. Davies, USA |
| Phyllis J. McAlpine, Canada | David Weatherall*, UK | Muriel Davisson, USA | Victor A. McKusick*, USA |
| Robert A. Weinberg, USA | Larry L. Deaven, USA | P. Meera Kahn, The Netherlands | Jean Weissenbach, France |
| Albert de la Chapelle, Finland | O.J. Miller, USA | Sherman M. Weissman, USA | Helen Donis-Keller, USA |
| Andrei D. Mirzabekov*, USSR | Charles Weissmann, Switzerland | Ford Doolittle, USA | Jan Mohr, Denmark |
| Raymond L. Whoite, USA | Renato Dulbecco*, USA | Newton Morton, UK | Michael Wigler, USA |
| John H. Edwards, UK | Robert Moyzis, USA | Huntington F. Willard, Canada | Argiris Efstratiadis, USA |
| Daniel Nathans, USA | Robert T. Williamson, UK | H. John Evans, UK | Susumu Nishimura, Japan |
| Allan C. Wilson, USA | Marc Fellous, France | S. Numan, Japan | Ernst L. Winnacker, West Germany |
| Malcolm A. Ferguson-Smith*, UK | Robert L. Nussbaum, USA | Savios L.C. Woo, USA | Walter Fiers, Belgium |
| Stephen J. O'Brien, USA | Ronald G. Worton*, Canada | Uta Francke, USA | Michio Oishi, Japan |
| Mitsuaki Yoshida, Japan | Jean Frezal*, France | Maynard Olson, USA | Hans G. Zachau, West Germany |
| Theodore Friedmann, USA | Stuart H. Orkin, USA | Norton D. Zinder*, USA | Anna-Marie Frischauf, UK |
| Jurg Ott, USA | Harald zur Hausen*, West Germany | Antonio Garcia-Bellido, Spain | David C. Page, USA |
| Tobias Gedde-Dahl, Jr., Norway | Mary Lou Pardue, USA |