Mark B. Gerstein, PhD (Damon Runyon Fellow ‘94-‘96) of Yale University, New Haven, and colleagues, announced the exciting results of the ENCODE (Encyclopedia of DNA Elements) project. As reported in 30 publications in Nature and other journals, the consortium assigned a biochemical function to over 80% of the human genome—sequences that had previously been thought to be “junk DNA.” ENCODE was featured in The New York Times and selected as one of the “Runners-Up” for Science magazine’s 2012 Breakthrough of the Year.
