In recent months on Mendelspod, we’ve explored how new sequencing and proteomics technologies are revealing biology in regions of the genome (and proteome) that have long escaped our attention. From repeat expansion disorders to new approaches in cancer diagnostics, the dark genome is increasingly becoming clinically relevant.
Today we’re revisiting a conversation from earlier in the year that asks an even bigger question. What if much of this unexplored genomic territory is not simply functional, but a reservoir of evolutionary possibility?
Last March, we talked with Sudhakaran Prabakaran, computational biologist at Northeastern University, founder of NonExomics, and author of Eclipsed Horizons: Unveiling the Dark Genome.
Drawing on his lab’s work cataloging more than 250,000 non-canonical proteins, Prabakaran argued that regions outside traditional gene definitions may be continually generating new proteins with implications for adaptation, evolution, and disease.
From rapidly diversifying cichlid fishes to human accelerated regions (HARs) of the human genome linked to schizophrenia, Sudhakaran makes the case that protein birth and death is continuous, cheap, and exploratory. In his framing, the “dark genome” functions less like debris and more like a flexible evolutionary sandbox. His company, NonExomics, is also exploring how these previously overlooked proteins might become biomarkers for cancer and other diseases.
As our recent interviews have demonstrated, we’re entering a new era of genomic discovery. Prabakaran challenges us to think about just how much biology remains to be found.
