Chap1 Why we care about 3D genome

Better understanding of life from a higher dimension view

Around 15 years ago, one of the greatest feats of exploration in history - The Human Genome Project (HGP) was completed. This inward voyage to explore the sequence and map all of the genes - together known as the genome - of Homo sapiens. It gave us the ability to read nature's complete genetic blueprint for building a human being. By leveraging the comprehensive sequence map, we gained insight of how these simple life codes are associated with life development, disease, evolution so on and so forth.

"two sequence whisper, multiple sequences shout" —— Arthur M. Lesk

However, the mystery of life can never be simply understood in the view of a linear structure. Instead, just as we understand the complexity of a jungle by walking through it, obersving the hierachical niches and biological diversity rather than a birdview with green patches companied with blue lines from the google map, a 3D genome architecture further integrate a time dimension can provide a much more comprehensive knowledge for understanding the life.

“Genes and regulatory elements are like people, They care about and communicate with those in their own domain, and they ignore everything else.” —— Job Dekker