INTRODUCTION: Human genome sequencing project completion is considered as a major milestone in genomic research. This global effort had established a new vision of advance therapeutics. It was mainly accomplished by conventional 'Sanger Sequencing' method, which had taken rigorous efforts of lab workers for 12 years and approximately $3 billion were spent. On similar lines, Prof. Craig Venter's lab also sequenced a human genome. However, successful completion of these two competing human genome projects could not satisfy biologists' hunger for greater sequencing throughput and more economical sequencing. The main limitations of Sanger method were high cost, low speed and labour intensive nature. Due to these limitations, the Sanger sequencing process could not fulfill the rapid increase in demand from pharma industries and genomic research facilities. This vacuum was successfully filled by next generation sequencing methods, as they are cost effective, less time consuming and capable enough to read millions of DNA sequences in parallel. Read more
