ENCODE: the Encyclopedia of DNA Elements

Westringia F. — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 07:52:35 -0800

In 2001, we learned the sequence of our genome; now, we have amassed a vast amount of knowledge about what those sequences actually do. Yesterday, the data from the ENCODE project went live. ENCODE, the Encyclopedia of DNA Elements, is a project to identify and annotate all functional elements of the human genome, including transcription, transcription factor association, chromatin structure, and histone modification. It is a major achievement that was announced in a fanfare of publications. An elegant and accessible description of the project was posted by science writer Ed Yong on his Discover blog Not Exactly Rocket Science. The data is publicly explorable through a very nice interface, including an iPad app and a virtual machine. ENCODE constitutes a vast amount of data that will have a significant impact on research in genetics, bioinformatics, and medicine. Ewan Birney, the lead data analysis coordinator, discusses in Nature how the vast amount of data was wrangled, and has posted additional thoughts on his blog.

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