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Genomic research has two quite distinct faces. On the one hand, it produces large, curated, reference data sets through numerous networks of investigators for community use—although this aspect has great and widespread utility, it does not inspire per se. On the other hand, it allows an unbiased genome-wide view that is exciting precisely because it habitually uncovers biology that we were hopelessly ignorant about.

We describe an open source, portable, JavaScript-based genome browser, JBrowse, that can be used to navigate genome annotations over the web. JBrowse helps preserve the user's sense of location by avoiding discontinuous transitions, instead offering smoothly animated panning, zooming, navigation, and track selection.

ClinSeq is a pilot project to investigate the use of whole-genome sequencing as a tool for clinical research. By piloting the acquisition of large amounts of DNA sequence data from individual human subjects, we are fostering the development of hypothesis-generating approaches for performing research in genomic medicine, including the exploration of issues related to the genetic architecture of disease, implementation of genomic technology, informed consent, disclosure of genetic information, and archiving, analyzing, and displaying sequence data.