Name: Genomics explained: How tech revealed the information inside our DNA
Uploaded: 2025-07-18T18:22:10.000Z
Duration: 5 min 7 s
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From humans to animals and even plants, genomics play a key role in understanding and decoding the life stories of all living beings.

The human body alone has trillions of cells.

The nucleus of every cell has a chromosome made up of DNA, a molecule that carries an organism's unique genetic information.

The segments of DNA that tell cells how to function are called genes.

Scientists believe that humans have between 20 and 25,000 protein-encoding genes.

The order of the letters determines the meaning of the information encoded, so the key to finding genes is to work out the precise order of these letters.

Over 99% of DNA is the same in all humans, which means it's less than 1% of DNA that determines unique features such as eye colour, height, freckles or blood type.

By analysing DNA, we can learn about traits such as food intolerances, certain health risks and even ancestry.

Scientists can also develop better medical treatments and identify patterns across subgroups of people.

An organism's complete set of DNA is called genome and the study of the genome is known as genomics.

New advancements in technology have allowed us to look at the entire genome.

This process is called whole genome sequencing.

First, a DNA sample is collected, extracted from the cells and suspended in a liquid.

The DNA is then broken into fragments and the sample is placed in a sequencer.

The machine reads the order of the letters in each fragment and produces and assembles data for scientists to read.

In the late 1970s, before sequencers existed, two-time Nobel Prize winner Frederick Sanger developed the first DNA sequencing method by hand.

His method, a version of which is still in use today, was further developed with advanced technology and was used in a revolutionary project.

The goal was to generate the first complete sequence of the human genome and identify all 50 to 100,000 genes within it. 13 years and almost $3 billion later, the result was a sequence that accounted for over 90% of the human genome.

About 70% of the sequenced samples came from one person of blended ancestry, with the remaining 30% coming from 19 individuals, mostly from European ancestry.

It would have taken Fred Sanger 2.5 million years to decipher the human genome by hand.

The Human Genome Project was far from perfect, but it paved the way for the development of new diagnostic methods and sequencing technologies.

One of those technologies is genome, or gene, editing, which makes changes to an organism's DNA sequence.

One of the most recent advancements in genome editing is a technique called CRISPR-Cas9.

Its creators, Emmanuel Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna, received the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for its discovery.

It identifies a DNA sequence within a gene that is cut by an enzyme called Cas9.

The sequence is either changed or replaced by a different bit of DNA.

This allows faulty genes to be replaced with healthy ones or changed to make them behave differently.

CRISPR has given scientists a chance to rewrite almost any organism's genetic code, and it's brought in new prospects of tackling genetic diseases faster and better.

In 2015, doctors used gene editing to cure a baby's leukaemia, and in the future, it could fix gene mutations of cancer or edit genes that cause hereditary diseases.

But despite the benefits of gene editing technologies like CRISPR, some worry they may be used to edit traits that are not diseases at all.

In 2018, a Chinese scientist genetically modified embryos to make them immune to HIV and was later jailed for it.

And in the past three years, Texas-based Colossal Biosciences has been working to reprogram an Asian elephant's cells for it to survive in the Arctic tundra.

In agriculture, gene editing has also been introduced to edit crops and help combat climate change.

Many claim these practices expose people to risks and lack consent from communities.

However, gene sequencing and editing therapies in humans have, so far, opened doors for personalized medicine and treatments.

As many companies work toward developing them, the genomics market is gearing up for growth.

One prediction says it will grow from $33 billion in 2023 to $157 billion in 2033.

That is a compound annual growth rate of 16.6%.

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Genomics explained: How tech revealed the information inside our DNA

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