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Generic Chromosome DNA

​Genomics

updated: October 31, 2024

Definition

Genomics is a field of biology focused on studying all the DNA of an organism — that is, its genome. Such work includes identifying and characterizing all the genes and functional elements in an organism’s genome as well as how they interact.  



Narration

A genome is all the DNA of an organism. In 1987, a new field of science was named called genomics. Genomics focuses on the study of genomes, doing so with a style that is often focused on examining all of the DNA of an organism as to opposed to just bits and pieces. In the decades that have followed the original coining of the word genomics, the field has seen a substantial growth from a very basic science endeavor to now being a major part of a wide range of activities, ranging from medicine to agriculture to environmental monitoring to ancestry to forensics.

Eric Green
Eric Green, M.D., Ph.D.

Director

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