Celebrate National DNA Day

National DNA Day is Thursday April 25, 2013. It commemorates the day in 1953 when James Watson, Francis Crick, Maurice Wilkins, Rosalind Franklin and colleagues published papers in the journal Nature on the structure of DNA. Also, on this day in 2003 it was declared that the Human Genome Project was very close to completion.

In the United States, DNA Day was first celebrated on April 25, 2003 by proclamation of both the Senate and the House of Representatives. However, they only declared a one-time celebration, not an annual holiday. Every year from 2003 onward, annual DNA Day celebrations have been organized by the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI). April 25 has been since declared “International DNA Day” and “World DNA Day” by several international organizations.