The New York Times (3/26, A6, Zimmer, Subscription Publication) reports that researchers “in Iceland have produced an unprecedented snapshot of a nation’s genetic makeup, discovering a host of previously unknown gene mutations that may play roles” in diverse diseases. In four articles published March 25 in the journal Nature Genetics, scientists “at deCODE, an Icelandic genetics firm owned by Amgen, described sequencing the genomes – the complete DNA – of 2,636 Icelanders, the largest collection ever analyzed in a single human population.” From this “genetic information, the scientists were able to accurately infer the genomes of more than 100,000 other Icelanders, or almost a third of the entire country.”
Related Links:
— “In Iceland’s DNA, New Clues to Disease-Causing Genes,”Carl Zimmer, The New York Times, March 25, 2015.