Genome sequencing is rewriting the history of disease outbreaks – but without social context, it can tell only part of the story
- Written by Marc Zimmer, Professor of Chemistry, Connecticut College
A pathogen's genome acts as a biological record of where it came from and how it spread.Westend61/Getty ImagesFingerprinting transformed police investigations by making it possible to place a suspect at a crime scene with physical evidence. Similarly, genome sequencing has changed how disease detectives study outbreaks by allowing them to read a...

