A group of international scientists announced Monday that they have completed the map of the human genetic code to an accuracy of 99.99 percent, a discovery some MSU scientists say could open doors for the future of medicine.

The genome is the collection of genes that form DNA. In humans, the genome is about 3.12 billion pairs of chemicals that form between 35,000 and 40,000 genes.

Each gene is a set of instructions for the makeup of a human being. Defective genes can lead to genetic diseases and disorders.

The International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium, an organization of 18 institutions, issued a report with the essentially complete sequence of the human genome and has made the code available on computer databases around the world.

Many scientists believe the discovery will allow them to identify genetic diseases, design drugs to treat those diseases and be able to predict genetic disorders before birth, said Helmut Bertrand, director of the MSU genetics program.

"I'm not sure that it opens any doors beyond what technology allows us to do," he said. "The problem is we may have the best knowledge in the world, but we don't have the best medical care."

This is not the first time information about the human genome has been available to researchers, Bertrand said. Researchers have previously used the incomplete maps of human and animal genomes to identify genetic disorders.

The .01 percent of the genome that is not sequenced is because of genetic variation in individuals, Bertrand said. Researchers are likely to develop a "consensus" human genome for research purposes that won't represent any single person, he said.

Some MSU researchers, including Sarah Elsea, said they are excited for the new possibilities the discovery offers.

The genome sequence will help scientists understand what gene proteins create and determine their function in the cell, said Elsea, an assistant professor in the departments of Zoology and Pediatrics and Human Development.

"The human genome project is great, but it's only the beginning," she said.

Although scientists have 99.99 percent of the DNA in the human nucleus sequenced, there is a lack of knowledge about the function of individual genes, she said.

The discovery of the human genome sequence comes 50 years after British scientists James Watson and Francis Crick figured out the structure of DNA while working at Cambridge University in England in 1953.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.