Elbert Branscomb. Portrait of the American geneticist and scientific director of the Joint Genome Institute (JGI), Elbert Branscomb. In the background is a human genetic sequence. Each of the coloured bands represents one of the four bases that form the genetic code. JGI is part of the international Human Genome Project (HUGO) that aims to map the entire human genome, the three billion base pairs that form the genetic code of human DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid), by 2003. The JGI, founded in Walnut Creek, California, in 1997, is a collaboration between the US Department of Energy's Lawrence Livermore, Lawrence Berkeley and Los Alamos National Laboratories.