Functional Genomics: It's All How You Read It

Hieter and Boguski describe the new era of functional genomics that is being entered as the mapping and sequencing (structural genomics) phase of the Human Genome Project draws to a close. Functional genomics involves the development of global experimental approaches for analyzing gene function by utilizing information and reagents provided by structural genomics. Functional genomic data needs to be generated by rigorous experiments to allow a fair evaluation of the emerging technologies. The data should also be made publicly accessible in order for the scientific community to gain maximum benefit.