Answer:
Major advances in technology have enabled us to continue to push the boundaries of systems biology. The first sequencing approach, Sanger sequencing, was built on the principle that multiple clonal copies of fragments of DNA could be sequenced, where genome scaffolds could be constructed to cover entire regions of interest (e.g., gene or genome). However, the incorporation of a region of interest into either a plasmid or phage that could then be expanded into many clonal copies was a laborious, time-intensive process, taking up to 1 week for the preparation alone. A quantum jump over this approach came with Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) technologies, which allowed for higher throughput sequencing, reducing both the cost and preparation time, and dramatically increasing the productivity and rate of data generation.