UC San Diego, Department of Bioengineering

Over the last 20 years, the sequencing of the human genome, along with related organisms, has represented one of the largest scientific endeavors in the history of mankind. The information collected from genome sequencing will provide the raw data for the field of bioinformatics, where computer science and biology meet. Since the publication of the first full genome sequence in the mid-1990s, scientists have been working to identify the genomic location of all the gene products involved in the complex biological processes in a single organism. However, they have only been able to identify a fraction of those locations. Until now. Bioengineers at UC San Diego have made a breakthrough development that will now allow scientists to perform full delineation of the location and use of genomic elements. The researchers have discovered that multiple simultaneous genome-scale measurements are needed to identify all gene products, and to determine their cellular locations and interactions with the genome.