Impact of Human Exome Sequencing on Clinical Research

Abstract

Recent advances in human exome sequencing and the associated advantages have made it a technology of choice in various domains. The savings in time, cost and data storage compared with whole genome sequencing make this technology a potential game changer in clinical research settings. Recent advances in NGS have made it feasible to use exome sequencing in clinical research for identifying novel and rare variants that can lead to change in protein structure and function which may finally culminate into a totally different phenotype. If whole exome is not desired the same technology can be used for studying target exonic regions to investigate causative genes for a specific phenotype associated with disease. Exome sequencing has emerged as an effective and efficient tool for the translational and clinical research. There is a demand for systematically storing variant information in large databanks. Meaningful information from the exome-seq data can be combined with other data. This can be correlated with clinical findings within a clinical trial setting for a better study outcome.