Genomes by the thousand

Abstract

Ten years ago, two fingers were enough to count the number of sequenced human genomes. Until last year, the fingers on two hands were enough. Today, the rate of such sequencing is escalating so fast it is hard to keep track. Nature attempted nevertheless: we asked more than 90 genomics centres and labs to estimate the number of human genome sequences they have in the works. Although far from comprehensive, the tally indicates that at least 2,700 human genomes will have been completed by the end of this month, and that the total will rise to more than 30,000 by the end of 2011.