Genetics and Health

The Human Variome Project

by Hsien Hsien Lei, PhD on July 5th, 2006

Last month, the first meeting of The Human Variome Project took place in Melbourne, Australia headed by Professor Richard GH Cotton AM, director of the Genomics Disorders Research Centre. Those gathered plan to catalog 200,000 currently known disease-causing mutations plus 2 million more mutations so that systematic searches can be done.

The people who will benefit:

• Individuals with genetic disease; patients will receive the benefit of ALL knowledge.
• Caregivers of patients with genetic disease; they will find information easier and faster.
• The diagnostic laboratories; will be able to make faster and more accurate decisions.
• Biochemical genetic researchers; they will have ready access to more knowledge.
• Companies; those companies developing equipment or performing diagnostic tests will benefit.

The next project we need is a Human Proteome Project. The closest one I see is Human Proteome Organisation (HUPO), which has ongoing proteome projects for the human liver and brain among other scientific initiatives. And there’s a human proteome project in China that was launched in 2003.

Monsters and Critics, July 3, 2006

Technorati Tags: human variome project, human proteome project, variome, proteome, genome, genetics, genes, dna, disease, health

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POSTED IN: General Genetics and Health