Written primarily for 16-19 year old students, this primer aims to extend students'' knowledge and inspire them to take their school-level learning further. It explores topics that are familiar from the curriculum and also introduces new ideas, giving students a first taste of the study of biology beyond school-level and demonstrating how concepts frequently encountered at school are relevant to and applied in current research. This is the ideal text to supportstudents who are considering making the transition from studying biology at school to university. This Oxford Biology Primer will introduce students to the field of genomics and its applications. From the early days of the Human Genome Project, sequencing technology has rapidly developed and is now cheaper and more accessible than ever before. The resulting pervasive nature of these technologies make them more likely to be experienced by people as patients, consumers and citizens. The primer introduces the basic principles of gen