The head of bioinformatics and genomics laboratory of the Centre for Genomic Regulation in Barcelona (CRG), Roderic Guigo, explained the latest developments of the ENCODE project at a conference framed in IDIBELL seminar series on 14 June.

In 2003, the ENCODE project begun with the aim of knowing the human genome. The project has grown and is currently in its third phase. “We do not work only to know the genome sequence but to understand how DNA works in different conditions. Since, in principle, all the cells in our body have the same DNA but the cells of various body parts are different” explained Guigó.

Guigó explained that one of the aims of the ENCODE project is to generate data and develop standards on how to work with them so they can be used by all researchers. In any case, CRG researcher believes that “although we have come a long way, we still use a technology too primitive to reach a good understanding of the functioning of DNA and RNA”