An unprecedented consortium of ten global pharmaceutical companies, the UK's Wellcome Trust, and five research institutes will pool their resources to draw up a $45m (£30m) map of the variations in the human genetic code, or single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). This alliance, called the SNP Consortium, also announced last week that...
The Wellcome Trust is to fund 67% of a two year, $45m (£30m), international project to define some 300,000 DNA sequence variations in the human genome. The remaining funds come from a consortium of ten of the world's leading pharmaceutical companies, who have also agreed to put the newly discovered...
Japan's inadequate response to intensifying competition in international genome research was highlighted last week, when the future of the Japanese government's Rice Genome Sequencing Project was thrown into doubt by the news that Celera Genomics - the US company set up by geneticist J. Craig Venter - plans to sequence the entire...
The terms of reference and membership of the newly formed Genetics and Insurance Committee (GAIC) were announced by Tessa Jowell, the UK's Minister for Public Health, following last week's initial meeting. GAIC's primary task will be to ensure that genetic tests are only used in assessing insurance premiums when it...
Most leadership traits are heritable, according to a study published in the journal Twin Research. A group of researchers headed by Professor Andrew Johnson of the University of Western Ontario, in Canada, found in their study of almost 250 pairs of twins that identical twins were more likely to reach...
New research published in the journal Nature has increased scientists' understanding of how mutations in the presenilin gene increases the risk of developing inherited, early-onset Alzheimer's disease. About 40% of people with this inherited form of Alzheimer's have a mutation in the presenilin genes which predisposes them to the accumulation...
Developments in the use of gene therapy to treat muscular dystrophy and haemophilia have been reported in the past week. A team of scientists at the Salk Institute in California announced in the American journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, that a form of haemophilia in mice had...
The announcement made two weeks ago by leaders of the Human Genome Project was followed up last week by the Daily Telegraph. Scientists in research institutes in the US and UK announced on 15 March that the Human Genome Project will be finished ahead of schedule, a working draft being...
The on-going debate surrounding the Icelandic gene database project is thoroughly explored in the Sunday Times. Explaining the significant ramifications of a genetically isolated community such as Iceland for research into the causes of genetically inherited diseases, the article covers the setting up of Iceland's first biotechnology firm, Decode Genetics...
A first working draft of the human genome could be ready by next spring, 18 months ahead of schedule. This is the second time in six months that leaders of the Human Genome Project have brought the deadline forward. The project's leaders attributed the earlier than expected completion date to...
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