The world's leading teams researching into the human genome have been granted the Award. The teams are from The Sanger Centre in the United Kingdom, directed by John Sulston, from the National Human Genome Research Institute, under the leadership of Francis Collins, from Celera Genomics (U.S.A.) led by Craig Venter and Hamilton Smith and from Genoscope in France, under the directorship of Jean Weissenbach.

The complete mapping of the Genome is one of the most ambitious projects in the history of Science. Its conclusion will usher in a new era in the treatment of illnesses. Spectacular breakthroughs in the complete molecular and physiological analysis of genes and their interactions will bring genetic predisposition to suffering illnesses to light, thereby leading to better prevention policies to combat them.

John Sulston began his scientific career in the seventies at Cambridge, where he graduated in Organic Chemistry, and the obtained his doctorate. He spent a few years in La Jolla (California) before returning in 1969 to the Medical Research Council in Cambridge. He was the director of the Sanger Centre of the Wellcome Trust in Cambridge, and one of his first successes was to decipher the complete sequence of the Caenorhabditis elegans nematode. He has been a leading advocate of international cooperation in the ambitious task of deciphering the human genome in the public sector. The Sanger Centre has set up the "genome campus", Europe's biggest contribution to the Genome Project.

John Sulston has accepted the Prince of Asturias Award on behalf of the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium, which has released the sequence of the human genome freely and without restriction, for the benefit of all humankind.