This article is part of the supplement: Beyond the Genome: The true gene count, human evolution and disease genomics
Reading and writing genomes
Genome Biology 2010, 11(Suppl 1):I2 doi:10.1186/gb-2010-11-s1-i2
The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://genomebiology.com/2010/11/S1/I2
| Published: | 11 October 2010 |
© 2010 Church; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.
Invited speaker presentation
The human genome draft published in 2004 was a milestone, but achieved at a cost of $3 billion it is inapplicable to diagnostics for global health. We have reduced the cost of sequencing by over a million times in the past six years. The next step is integrating Genome + Environment = Trait (GET) data on large diverse cohorts enabled by a new consent mechanism (http://www.personalgenomes.org webcite) in a globally shareable, unrestricted form (http://evidence.personalgenomes.org webcite). This includes time-series studies of microbiomes and immune responses to such microbes, allergens, vaccines and allele-specific expression in pluripotent stem cells. To move from correlations to causations and cures requires a similar million-fold improvement in DNA writing technology - via use of DNA synthesized on chips and Multiplex Automated Genome Engineering (MAGE). Applications include metabolic engineering and multivirus resistant cells.