In May, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) released its first genome in a bottle, a reference sample of DNA for validating human genome sequences. This so-called truth sequence comes from a decades-old sample donated by a Utah woman for (other) research purposes (NA12878 cell line), which, over the years, has been one of the most studied, and hence best-characterized, human samples. Seeing genomic medicine moving toward mainstream healthcare, researchers at NIST recognized the need for a reference human genome and assembled a private-public consortium in 2012 to create one. As detailed in a 2014 Nature Biotechnology paper (Nat. Biotechnol.32, 246–251, 2014), the group integrated and arbitrated among sequences from 14 data sets, five sequencing technologies, seven read mappers and three variant callers.

In May, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) released its first genome in a bottle, a reference sample of DNA for validating human genome sequences. This so-called truth sequence comes from a decades-old sample donated by a Utah woman for (other) research purposes (NA12878 cell line), which, over the years, has been one of the most studied, and hence best-characterized, human samples. Seeing genomic medicine moving toward mainstream healthcare, researchers at NIST recognized the need for a reference human genome and assembled a private-public consortium in 2012 to create one. As detailed in a 2014 Nature Biotechnology paper (Nat. Biotechnol.32, 246–251, 2014), the group integrated and arbitrated among sequences from 14 data sets, five sequencing technologies, seven read mappers and three variant callers.

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