Gene Map Shortcut
Using fewer markers to capture genetic variations

Context: The Human Genome Project provided a parts list of our genes, but that alone cannot connect genetic variants with health; diseases and drug responses must be correlated with genetic markers that vary from person to person. The most common and easily assessed markers are single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), in which genetic sequences swap one DNA "letter" for another.

But an individual has many more SNPs than researchers can afford to measure, and until now, there have been no reliable tools for selecting the most representative ones. Recently, the biotech company Perlegen Sciences and its collaborators at the International Computer Science Institute and the University of California, San Diego, completed the first map of SNPs that provides these tools. This map will move us closer to an era in which patients' genetic makeup routinely guides their medical treatment.