Gattaca... and beyond!

On Oct. 27 the three-year old International HapMap Consortium published a comprehensive catalog of more than 1 million human genetic variations, grouped in blocks called haplotypes. The DNA sequences of any two individuals are 99.9% the same, but the range of variations in the remaining 0.1% is enormous. That 0.1% is responsible for a predisposition to asthma, diabetes, cancer, heart disease, schizophrenia, and many other ailments.

The HapMap database, which is freely available to all, allows researchers to connect genetic variations to a disease. Once such a link is made, drugmakers hope to come up with a treatment that can zero in on the cause and possibly even prevent the illness. "This type of information is completely changing the way we do drug discovery," says Paul Herrling, head of corporate research for Novartis AG. "It is certainly an important step in the direction of personalized medicine."

Read it all here.