Drawing of an adult C. elegans worm

Wellcome Library | Drawing | Human Genome Project

To sequence the nematode genome required more resources than Sulston and Waterston had available in their mapping project. However the efforts to sequence the worm coincided with an international desire to attempt to map the human genome. Sulston proposed a project to the Wellcome Trust and Medical Research Council that would sequence the worm and contribute to the international Human Genome Project. The bid was successful, as was Waterston’s efforts to secure US funding from the National Institutes of Health, and the dual project, worm and human, found its home at the Sanger Centre in Hinxton, Cambridgeshire.