01/05/03

New research ‘may speed up search for disease genes’

By: Katie Mantell

We encourage you to republish this article online and in print, it’s free under our creative commons attribution license, but please follow some simple guidelines:

You have to credit our authors.
You have to credit SciDev.Net — where possible include our logo with a link back to the original article.
You can simply run the first few lines of the article and then add: “Read the full article on SciDev.Net” containing a link back to the original article.
If you want to also take images published in this story you will need to confirm with the original source if you're licensed to use them.
The easiest way to get the article on your site is to embed the code below.

For more information view our media page and republishing guidelines.

The full article is available here as HTML.

Press Ctrl-C to copy

<div class="article-wrap">
<div id="article-introduction">
<h1>New research ‘may speed up search for disease genes’</h1>
<h4>By: Katie Mantell</h4>
</div>
<br />
<br />

<div id="article-body">
<p><P>Most of the genetic variation in the human genome is organised into large, neat units called ‘haplotype’ blocks, which are similar among African, European and Asian populations, according to new research.</P><br />
<P>The findings, published in <EM>Science </EM>by a team of British, US and Nigerian scientists, are said to strengthen the case for building a haplotype map of the human genome, which is expected to make it easier, faster and cheaper to track disease-causing genes in the population. </P><br />
<P>The researchers, led by Stacey Gabriel of the Whitehead/MIT Center for Genome Research, Massachusetts, United States examined haplotype patterns in more than 50 randomly chosen regions of the human genome in samples from Africa, Europe and Asia.</P><br />
<P>They found that the genome consists of blocks over which little recombination has occurred, and within which only a few common haplotypes occur.  </P><br />
<P>The results “make a strong case for building a haplotype map of the human genome,” says David Altshuler, one of the researchers. </P>“Once the whole genome is characterised in terms of haplotypes, the amount of work required to map diseases should be decreased by twenty or fifty fold. This should greatly accelerate the search for disease genes.”<BR><BR><br />
<P>© SciDev.Net 2002<BR><BR>Reference: <EM>Science </EM>296, 2225 (2002)</P></p>

</div>
<div class="quick-links-wrapper">
<h3>You might also like</h3>
[related-articles]
</div>
<p>This article was originally published on <a href="https://www.scidev.net" target="_blank">SciDev.Net</a>. Read the <a href="https://www.scidev.net/global/news/new-research-may-speed-up-search-for-disease-gene/" target="_blank">original article</a>.</p>
<script type="text/javascript">
(function(e,t,n,r,i,s,o){e["GoogleAnalyticsObject"]=i;e[i]=e[i]||function(){(e[i].q=e[i].q||[]).push(arguments)},e[i].l=1*new Date;s=t.createElement(n),o=t.getElementsByTagName(n)[0];s.async=1;s.src=r;o.parentNode.insertBefore(s,o)})(window,document,"script","//www.google-analytics.com/ga.js","ga");var _gaq=_gaq||[];var _gaq=_gaq||[];_gaq.push(["_setAccount","UA-3223906-8"],["_trackEvent","article interaction","republished","https://www.scidev.net/global/news/new-research-may-speed-up-search-for-disease-gene/",null,true])
</script>
</div>

Most of the genetic variation in the human genome is organised into large, neat units called ‘haplotype’ blocks, which are similar among African, European and Asian populations, according to new research.

The findings, published in Science by a team of British, US and Nigerian scientists, are said to strengthen the case for building a haplotype map of the human genome, which is expected to make it easier, faster and cheaper to track disease-causing genes in the population.

The researchers, led by Stacey Gabriel of the Whitehead/MIT Center for Genome Research, Massachusetts, United States examined haplotype patterns in more than 50 randomly chosen regions of the human genome in samples from Africa, Europe and Asia.

They found that the genome consists of blocks over which little recombination has occurred, and within which only a few common haplotypes occur.

The results “make a strong case for building a haplotype map of the human genome,” says David Altshuler, one of the researchers.

“Once the whole genome is characterised in terms of haplotypes, the amount of work required to map diseases should be decreased by twenty or fifty fold. This should greatly accelerate the search for disease genes.”