Genetic ‘Map’ Unveiled in Search for Disease
SAN DIEGO — Scientists said Wednesday that they have drawn a detailed “map†that promises to speed the hunt for genes that cause cancer, heart disease, high blood pressure and mental disorders.
The genetic map, a first of its kind, consists of more than 400 “marker†genes spaced at regular intervals along the 23 pairs of chromosomes that contain a person’s 100,000 genes.
These markers act like street signs, allowing scientists to tell on which chromosome a disease gene lies.
The map was described by researchers from Collaborative Research, a biotechnology firm in Bedford, Mass., and Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, both in Cambridge.
“In the past, finding genes has been like looking for someone in Manhattan and doing it by calling telephone numbers at random,†said Eric Lander of Whitehead.
“If you called enough numbers, you would eventually find the person. But if you instead had someone stationed at every street corner, the search would be much more efficient.â€
Such maps pinpoint specific sites along the chromosomes that hold the genes.
Experts say the maps should make it possible to identify the genetic components, if any, of many common diseases.
“I think it’s a great achievement,†said one of the nation’s most distinguished geneticists, Dr. Victor McKusick of Johns Hopkins University.
Dr. David Botstein of MIT, one of the authors of the Collaborative study and a pioneer in the search for genetic markers, called the development “a milestone.â€
The work by Collaborative Research was outlined by Dr. Philip Green at a meeting of the American Society of Human Genetics in San Diego on Wednesday.
