Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Appendix C
The Rapidly Expanding Field of
“-Omics” Technologies
Technologic advances in “-omics” technologies—especially in the genom-
ics, proteomics, metabolomics, bioinformatics, and related fields of the molecu-
lar sciences (referred to here collectively as panomics)—have transformed the
understanding of biologic processes at the molecular level and should eventually
allow detailed characterization of molecular pathways that underlie the biologic
responses of humans and other organisms to environmental perturbations. The
following sections discuss recent advances in -omics technologies and ap-
proaches. They also discuss some of the implications of -omics technologies for
the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), areas in which EPA is at the
leading edge of applying the technologies to address environmental problems,
and the areas in which EPA could benefit from more extensive engagement.
GENOMICS
Beginning in the late 1990s, the Human Genome Project (DOE 2011) ush-
ered in an unprecedented leap in technologies that allow scientists to discern the
fundamental sequences of genes of entire genomes—not only the human ge-
nome but a plethora of model organisms, such as plants, microorganisms, inver-
tebrates, vertebrates, and even the long-extinct woolly mammoth (Miller et al.
2008; NHGRI 2012). The ability to derive, quickly and relatively inexpensively,
the entire sequence of an organism's genome provides unprecedented opportuni-
ties in biologic and ecologic sciences, including the opportunity to understand
how environmental factors influence biology at the molecular level.
The Human Genome Project fueled the development of faster and less ex-
pensive DNA sequencing. So called first-generation sequencing technologies,
originally described by Sanger and Coulson (1975), have served as the primary
technology for DNA sequencing for the last several decades, with estimated
costs of $3 billion to sequence the human genome (NHGRI 2010; Woollard et
al. 2011). Large-scale sequencing projects based on several next-generation se-
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