At the turn of the century, when genomics was starting to bloom, the Rector of the University, Dr Juan Ramón de la Fuente, appointed a Committee to present a plan to develop Genomic Sciences in México. It was decided that the critical step was the creation of an Undergraduate Program in Genomic Sciences (Licenciatura en Ciencias Genómicas-UNAM).

The goal of the Undergraduate Program on Genomic Sciences was to train students in tree areas of knowledge: Mathematics, Computer Sciences and Modern Biology.

The Undergraduate Program on Genomic Sciences (Licenciatura en Ciencias Genómicas,  LCG-UNAM) was created on June 20, 2003.

A particularly important activity of the students is the participation in the International Contest of Synthetic Biology organized by MIT. They participate each year in proposing and developing a project based on their own ideas.

By the year 2013 we had graduated seven generations (169 students). The photographs presents the students who obteined the Gabino Barreda Medal in each generation: Rocío Domínguez, Daniel Blanco, Renan Escalante Chong, Cynthia Alexander, José Reyes, Marie Lisandra Zepeda and Kim Palacios Flores. At this time several graduate students where enrolled in PhD programs or started their postdoctoral training. The critical question was to decide on the next steps in order to incorporate the most promissing scholars as researchers in Mexican Institutions.

By the end of 2013 the Rector of the University, Dr José Narro Robles, invited Dr Rafael Palacios to propose a novel Institution in UNAM that would have as main goal the incorporation of about twenty research groups leaded by young mexican researchers. The prototype of such young researchers should be the students graduated from the LCG after finishing their PhD and postdoctoral training.

The International Laboratory for Human Genome Research (LIIGH – UNAM) was inaugurated by the Rector of the University, Dr José Narro Robles counting with the presence of the President of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Dr Bruce Stillman, on April 8, 2015.

The academic foundations of LIIGH – UNAM are:  young talented scientists considered as independent researchers from their incorporation into LIIGH; collaboration with international recognized scientists both from Mexico and from abroad; and research based mainly in original ideas. When  the project of the new Laboratory was developed, a group of young scholars  was selected out of the 169 students graduated from the LCG. The photoraph shows some of these scholars; the white arrows indicate those that have been already hired as researchers at LIIGH. Two senior scientists, Dr Rafael Palacios and Dr Guillermo Dávila (black arrows) transfered their adscription to LIIGH with the mission of promoting the academic development of the young scientists.