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The completion of the human reference genome over a decade ago served as a springboard for countless studies of genetic variation and its role in disease, but understanding how the body operates at the DNA sequence-level isn’t enough to resolve some of the finer points of human biology. Specifically: how can the same sequence of genetic code give rise to over 200 different cell types that perform distinct biological functions? And how might the processes that give rise to that functional variation contribute to human disease?

The sequencing of the human genome laid the foundation for the study of genetic variation and its links to a wide range of diseases. But the genome itself is only part of the story, as genes can be switched on and off by a range of chemical modifications, known as “epigenetic markers.”

Now, a decade after the human genome was sequenced, the National Institutes of Health’s has created a similar map of the human epigenome.