Babbage: The unfinished genomics revolution

<p>Twenty years ago, the <a href="https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2023/04/08/how-the-human-genome-project-revolutionised-biology?utm_campaign=a.io&amp;utm_medium=audio.podcast.np&amp;utm_source=babbage&amp;utm_content=discovery.content.anonymous.tr_shownotes_na-na_article&amp;utm_term=sa.listeners" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Human Genome Project was completed</a>. It unveiled a mostly complete sequence of the 3 billion pairs of building blocks that make up the code within every set of human chromosomes. These are the instructions that create humans. Almost all of human biology research uses the Human Genome Project’s findings in some way, from understanding why some people are more likely to develop diseases than others, to uncovering the secrets of our ancestors and evolution. But for genomics to become a part of everyday medicine, paving the way for personalised medicines, <a href="https://www.economist.com/leaders/2023/04/13/the-human-genome-project-transformed-biology?utm_campaign=a.io&amp;utm_medium=audio.podcast.np&amp;utm_source=babbage&amp;utm_content=discovery.content.anonymous.tr_shownotes_na-na_article&amp;utm_term=sa.listeners" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">the hard work is still ahead</a>.</p><br><p>Natasha Loder, <em>The Economist</em>’s health editor and Geoff Carr, our senior editor for science and technology, reflect on the completion of the Human Genome Project in the early 2000s and the gaps that still remain. Natasha also visits the <a href="https://www.economist.com/britain/2022/01/26/britain-has-long-been-a-leader-in-genome-sequencing/21807380?utm_campaign=a.io&amp;utm_medium=audio.podcast.np&amp;utm_source=babbage&amp;utm_content=discovery.content.anonymous.tr_shownotes_na-na_article&amp;utm_term=sa.listeners" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Wellcome Sanger Institute</a>, to explore the next frontiers for genomics in medicine—she meets the outgoing director, Mike Stratton; the incoming director, Matt Hurles; and the boss of the European