HapMap consortium publishes human genetic variation catalogue
27 October 2005
The International HapMap Consortium today published a comprehensive catalogue of human genetic variation, a landmark achievement that is already accelerating the search for genes involved in common diseases such as asthma, diabetes, cancer and heart disease.
In the report, published today in 'Nature', more than 200 researchers from Canada, China, Japan, Nigeria, the UK and the United States describe the initial results from their three-year public–private effort to chart the patterns of genetic variation that are common in the world's population. Their findings show that the search for clinically relevant genes can be simplified by using the map of variation developed by the HapMap Project.
Medical genetics will benefit enormously from the increased power that the HapMap provides. By using HapMap data to compare the SNP (single nucleotide polymorphisms) patterns of people affected by a disease with those of unaffected people, researchers can survey the whole genome and identify genetic contributions to common diseases more efficiently than previously possible.
See also
- Consortium completes HapMap (Press release: 27 October 2005)