1,000 genomes just weren’t enough. The Wellcome Trust is going to sequence another 10,000 human genomes in the next three years, the UK-based charity announced today. The aim is to identify rare sequence variations that are linked to disease. (For more on the advantages of rare variants see ‘Hunt for genetic causes of diseases narrows targets’.)

Not all of the 10,000 will be full genome sequences – 6,000 will be ‘exome’ sequences, which include only the coding genes, leaving out the mysterious ~98% of the genome that doesn’t code for protein. Nevertheless, 10,000 is an impressive sum and the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, a sequencing center near Cambridge, UK, has secured £10.5 million for the ‘UK10K’ project.

Importantly, UK10K participants will come with valuable clinical data. The 4,000 to have their full genomes sequenced come from two long-term studies (TwinsUK and the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children). The other 6,000 individuals have diseases thought to have a genetic component, such as autism or congenital heart disease.

Image: NIEHS