Thanks. I have always wondered why nobody else came up with the same solution or even something similar. The idea used nothing that had not been around since the 1970s so it should have been invented by someone else long before I had the idea.
For the non-molecular biologists I should explain how it would have saved billions. The human genome was effectively sequenced by breaking it millions of random fragments of around 1000 bases (letters) and the sequence (order) of the bases in each fragment determined. In order to be able to put the fragments back together in the right order each base was sequenced 10-15 times in different fragments. My idea allowed you to avoid all this redundancy meaning you had to only sequence each base once or twice. I did some simulations based on the actual costs of the human genome project and it would have saved 80% of the costs and finished it 3 years earlier.
For the non-molecular biologists I should explain how it would have saved billions. The human genome was effectively sequenced by breaking it millions of random fragments of around 1000 bases (letters) and the sequence (order) of the bases in each fragment determined. In order to be able to put the fragments back together in the right order each base was sequenced 10-15 times in different fragments. My idea allowed you to avoid all this redundancy meaning you had to only sequence each base once or twice. I did some simulations based on the actual costs of the human genome project and it would have saved 80% of the costs and finished it 3 years earlier.