A lot more of our genome is biologically active than previously thought – about 80% – an international team involving over 400 scientists revealed yesterday



The human genome has twice as many genes than previously thought



Nature

“Humans are 99.9 percent identical to each other, and you only have one difference in every 300 to 1,000 nucleotides. What ENCODE allows you to do is provide an annotation of what each nucleotide of the genome does, so that when it’s mutated, we can make some predictions about the consequences of the mutation.”

ENCODE















“On 5 September, an international team of researchers reveal that much of what has been called ‘junk DNA’ in the human genome is actually a massive control panel with millions of switches regulating the activity of our genes. Without these switches, genes would not work – and mutations in these regions might lead to human disease.”

switches











“Getting the best people with the best expertise together is what this is all about. ENCODE has really shown that leading life scientists are very good at collaborating closely on a large scale to produce excellent foundational resources that the whole community can use.”