In April 2003, scientists finished the monumental task of sequencing the first draft of the human genome. It revealed that only one percent of the human genome codes for genes, which left the nascent genomics community with the challenge of discovering the function, if any, of the remaining 99 percent. For the next 18 years, the Encyclopedia of DNA Elements (ENCODE) project sought to interpret this trove of genomic data by comprehensively characterizing all of the functional elements in DNA, including both genes and the non-coding elements that regulate gene activity.
