OVERVIEW-
Program Description
The April 2003 completion of the Human Genome Project ushered in an era of unprecedented opportunity to determine the ways in which our genes contribute to health and disease. Most common diseases, such as diabetes, cancer, heart disease, stroke, depression, and asthma, are affected by many genes and environmental factors. Although any two unrelated people share about 99.9 percent of their DNA sequences, the remaining 0.1 percent is important because it contains the genetic variants that influence how people differ in their risk of disease or response to drugs. Identifying specific genetic factors that influence health, disease, and response to treatment is essential to developing new and targeted approaches to reduce the burden of disease. Until now, progress in this area has been slow and difficult. However, with the sequencing of the human genome, lower cost and more efficient technologies, and the exploration of common patterns of genetic variation through the International Haplotype Map (HapMap) project, we now have powerful research tools for identifying variants that contribute to common diseases.
Scientists now have the techniques and tools necessary to uncover causal genes that contribute to disease susceptibility in a rapid and cost-effective manner. The process begins with a “whole genome association study” designed to identify specific points of DNA variation associated with the occurrence of a particular common disease by scanning the entire DNA sequence (or genome) of many individuals with the disease as well as many individuals without the disease. The comprehensive genome scan will be accomplished by comparing special DNA “tags”—known locations of common DNA sequence differences identified through the HapMap project—between the two groups in order to identify potential genetic patterns linked with the presence of disease. Once particular areas of the genome are associated with disease occurrence through this tag analysis, it should be possible to zero in on specific genes involved in the disease process much more quickly than would otherwise have been possible. We thus have an historic opportunity to answer key questions related to the complex contributions of genes and gene-gene interactions to human health—with potentially major consequences for improvement of prevention and treatment.
GAIN is intended to enhance and extend the utility of existing case-control (or trio) studies of common diseases by providing genotyping services to aid in the identification of genetic risk factors. No single individual or institution working alone can undertake a project of this magnitude. GAIN will bring together the needed scientific and financial resources through a public-private partnership in which all partners— including academia, government, private foundations, advocacy groups, and others —will work together toward a common goal. FNIH is actively seeking additional partners, and encourages industry leaders, disease advocacy groups, and philanthropists to participate in GAIN
(Partnerships).
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