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By validating an emerging technology, two new genomic studies offer hope for the fight against disease.

 

By Emily Singer

 

A male Yoruba from Nigeria and a Han Chinese man joined genetics luminaries James Watson and Craig Venter on Wednesday as the only people to have their genomes sequenced and made publicly available. The two anonymous genomes serve as proof that new sequencing technologies, which are orders of magnitude cheaper than standard methods, are capable of accurately reading the sequence of a complete human genome. That means that scientists will be able to sequence thousands of people, which they hope will finally enable a coherent understanding of the genomic basis of disease.