What is life? Answering this question is one of the ultimate goals of biologists. Since Mendel, Schrödinger, Watson, Crick, Jacob, Monod and so many others, the view has emerged that life is programmed by the DNA molecule. This view culminated during the last century through the completion of the “Human Genome Project,” the sequencing of a human genome. Simultaneously, major technical advances for counting RNAs and protein species opened the maws of the OMICS world (transcriptomics, proteomics, you-name-it-omics).

This is essentially when the smoke from our pipedream of a molecular Grail was blown away by the harsh winds of reality. If DNA is the book of life, no one has the slightest idea of how to read it. One major reason for this is that making sense of the huge amount of data is too complex—when one focuses on the small details the complete picture becomes blurred.
Continue reading IPG (Integrative Post-Genomics) ‘05: From post-genomics to good old genes? →