The DOE office whose Charles DeLisi organized the 1986 Santa Fe Workshop was the Office of Health and Environmental Research, or OHER.
The workshop, held in March 1986, helped turn the idea of mapping and sequencing the human genome into a serious federal research proposal. DeLisi was then directing DOE health and environmental research, while David Smith also helped organize the meeting. DOE’s interest was linked partly to understanding radiation-related damage to DNA.
OHER is easy to confuse with ELSI, NHGRI, and NCHGR. ELSI was the project’s ethical, legal, and social implications program; NHGRI is the later NIH institute created to lead genome research; and NCHGR was the earlier National Center for Human Genome Research. None of those names identifies the DOE office that sponsored the Santa Fe meeting.
After the workshop, DeLisi outlined a broad plan in a memo to Alvin Trivelpiece. DOE then reprogrammed funds, helping establish the federal groundwork that led to the Human Genome Project’s formal launch in 1990.