24. Clinical considerations for migration between genome assemblies: Lessons learned in moving to GRCh38

Most bioinformatics applications depend on mapping genomic data to the reference genome sequence. The most commonly used human reference version is GRCh37 (hg19) has been around for eleven years, and is employed widely across both clinical and research applications. Some research labs and genomic databases have transitioned to the most recent GRCh38 (hg38), the successor of hg19, which became available in late 2013. However, clinical labs are taking longer to adopt the newer genome build and most labs still employ hg19.
Source: Cancer Genetics and Cytogenetics - Category: Genetics & Stem Cells Authors: Source Type: research