First paragraph (this article has no abstract)

In 1990, with the initial launch of a 15-year project to map and sequence the human genome, a new era of science began. However, even after its successful and early completion in 2001 [1], no one could have foreseen how, only a few years later, genome sequencing would explode to become a widely applied multi-purpose tool whose applications include the mapping of epigenetic modifications and the complete assessment of both coding and non-coding RNA transcripts. The game changer behind this explosion was the transition from the classic electrophoretic Sanger sequencing method, which had limited scalability, to image-based massively parallel 'sequencing-by-synthesis' platforms.