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Human genome diversity: What about the other human genome project?

Abstract

Although the Human Genome Project has been successful, the Human Genome Diversity Project, proposed in 1991, has so far failed to thrive. One of the main values in studying the human genome, however, will come from examining its variations and their effects. To do that in a systematic way, an active Human Genome Diversity Project, or something very similar, will ultimately prove vital. Such an effort will confront difficult ethical and political issues; this article reviews those issues and tries to show how they might be overcome.

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Figure 1: Bhil women in the Thar desert, India.

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Huntington disease

cystic fibrosis

sickle cell anaemia

FURTHER INFORMATION

Human Genome Organization

US National Bioethics Advisory Commission

National Institutes of Health

Department of Energy

National Science Foundation

US National Research Council

Single Nucleotide Polymorphism Discovery Resource at the Coriell Institute

National Institute of General Medical Sciences Human Genetic Cell Repository

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

Centre pour l'Etude du Polymorphism Humaine

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Greely, H. Human genome diversity: What about the other human genome project?. Nat Rev Genet 2, 222–227 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1038/35056071

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