The Super-Information Age of Immunoglobulin Genetics

I f the information age arose with the popularization of the personal computer, then the emergence of super-powered versions of these machines completely integrated into our lives and into the superstructure of society via the Internet has led us into the super-information age. Information is pouring into our lives and onto our desktops with unprecedented speed and volume. Genomics technology and the super-information age have led to a similar proliferation of information in the study of human genetics and immunobiology. In this issue of The Journal of Experimental Medicine, through innovation, persistence, and technological prowess, Matsuda et al. have completed sequencing the entire human V_H gene locus, including all of the immunoglobulin V_H genes as well as the hundreds of kilobases of intervening sequence (1). This landmark work and the efforts of several other groups of pioneering immunogeneticists in the study of the human...