The revolution of whole genome sequencing to study parasites

- Genome sequencing has provided new tools for studying parasite biology.
- Genomics has led to discoveries of drug targets, and drug resistance mechanisms.
- New technologies are expanding the scope for population genetics and functional analyses.

Genome sequencing has revolutionized the way in which we approach biological research from fundamental molecular biology to ecology and epidemiology. In the last 10 years the field of genomics has changed enormously as technology has improved and the tools for genomic sequencing have moved out of a few dedicated centers and now can be performed on bench-top instruments. In this review we will cover some of the key discoveries that were catalyzed by some of the first genome projects and discuss how this field is developing, what the new challenges are and how this may impact on research in the near future.

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