In 2003, ENCODE was launched to build a complete “parts list” for Homo sapiens by identifying and pinpointing the location of every single stretch of the genome that does somethings. About 99% DNA that did not code for any protein, which called “junk DNA” had become a big challenge for scientists to be recognize instead of about 1% of genome that codes for protein. The establishment of ENCODE exposed previously hidden connections between diseases so that we may able to prevent some particular diseases in the future.
ENCODE had also shown that a gene is not the simple stretch of DNA that makes a protein, as we learnt and we knew that not all the protein-coding genes in our cell are activated. Fortunately, after 5 years of hardworking by Encode