The past ten years have brought rapid progress to the field of genomic research, which is beginning to have a great impact on our understanding of functional and regulatory genomics, human health and disease. Almost a decade after the release of the first draft of the human genome sequence, determining the true number of human genes continues to be contentious. Advances in powerful sequencing and assembly technologies have enabled a clearer view of the actual human gene count. Identifying the actual gene number in other genomes also continues to be a challenge. We are not simply the sum of our genes: amongst other factors, complex regulatory roles of small RNAs and other non-protein-coding genes, as well as the contribution of microbial genomes shape our development and the specific interplay of these factors continues to be much under debate. Rapid recent technological advances have also provided new insights into human evolution, and by enabling the resequencing of matched tumour and normal genomes these advances are bringing us closer to a personalized medical approach. Session 1: Sequencing cancer genomes Session 2: The number of genes in a genome Session 3: Microbiomes in human and other environments Session 4: Insights from genomic analyses into evolution | 