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The number of sequenced human genomes will soon swell to more than 1,000 as part of a new international research consortium's effort to trace the potential genetic origins of disease. But first the mother, father and adult child of a European-ancestry family from Utah and a Yoruba-ancestry family from Nigeria will join an anonymous individual as well as famous geneticists Craig Venter and James Watson as part of the handful of humans to have on record a complete readout of their roughly three billion pairs of DNA. And these six will also each have their genetic codes examined at least 20 times, providing 10 times the accuracy of existing genetic sequences as well as paving the way for the ambitious effort dubbed the 1,000 Genomes Project, which will comprehensively map humanity's genetic variation.
"The reference sequence that we obtained in 2003 [from the anonymous individual] is just a human genome sequence, but there are six billion humans and it is the sequence of all of us that is important," says project co-chair Richard Durbin of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute...
"The reference sequence that we obtained in 2003 [from the anonymous individual] is just a human genome sequence, but there are six billion humans and it is the sequence of all of us that is important," says project co-chair Richard Durbin of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute...