Summary: <p>It's not officially called Human Genome 2.0. But, key scientists say the research results published Wednesday should re-kindle some of the promise of the Human Genome Project.</p><p>One of those key scientists is John Stamatoyannopoloulos of the University of Washington, along with his team of about 40 researchers.</p><blockquote><p>"One of the important hopes here is that this will reinvigorate drug development that’s built around the genome," he says.</p></blockquote><p>The main project is called the "Encyclopedia of DNA Elements," or <a href="http://www.encodeproject.org/ENCODE/">ENCODE</a>. Stamatoyannopoloulos is one of seven principal investigators, located around the world, involved with the work.</p><p>The Human Genome Project showed that only about 1.5% of our DNA is actually in the form of genes – the code that makes every cell in our body run -- but the other 98.5% was considered far less important. Since then, scientists have begun to appreciate how vital that other DNA is.</p><p>For example, much of that extra code determines when a gene is turned "on" or "off."</p><p>The UW team showed <a href="http://www.washington.edu/news/2012/09/05/researchers-unlock-disease-information-hidden-in-genomes-control-circuitry/">how more than 400 different diseases are related</a> to these portions of the genome that once were labeled "junk DNA," because they were considered unimportant. <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2012/09/04/science.1222794.abstract">Their study</a> was published in the journal Science.</p><p>In the interview (audio above), Stamatoyannopoloulos explains why switching genes on or off makes all the difference in the world.</p><p>---</p><p><em>To explore more about this huge project, which made a splash with 30 different scientific articles published simultaneously this week, check out these sites devoted to ENCODE:</em></p><ul> <li>http://www.nature.com/news/encode-the-human-encyclopaedia-1.11312</li> <li>http://www.nature.com/encode/#/threads</li> <li>http://www.encodeproject.org/ENCODE/</li> </ul>
