Why Genomics?

During my last semester at the University of Puerto Rico, I took a course called "Genomics" and I was not completely sure what this course was about. As the semester went on, I noticed that this course was really interesting and that's when realized that I really enjoyed genetics and specifically the topic of genomics. For this reason, I would like to explore the topic more deeply and obtain a better understanding of how this science can be useful for future discovery of important disease genes.

Genomics is the study of genomes (the entire DNA code of an organism), and with this modern science it is possible to explore the entire genome of any desired organism; be it plants, animals, or bacteria. Even more interesting, it is possible to compare the genomes of two or more organism and genetically identify what is it that make them different from each other.

With the technology available today, there are many ways in which a genome can be studied. As the technology advances it is possible to do a genome in three weeks. Currently, I am involved in a project called the Puerto Rican Parrot Genome, and recently we received the first genome wide sequence of this bird.


Puerto Rican parrot drawing
by
Audrey Guiblet

 http://www.cb.pr/news03.php?nt_id=58178&ct_id=1


Throughout this English course I will develop my topic and discuss the different aspects of genomics.
Some of the aspects that can be discussed are: sequencing techniques, assembly  methods, and genome annotation.