News & Comment

Recent discoveries and improvements in technology have boosted the profile of 'personalized genomics'. But the demonstrated complexities of the genetics of common disease suggest caution—and an urgent need for more data, both in and out of the lab.

Understanding human genome function and variation will require developing genetics capacity in population-rich as well as resource-rich regions of the globe. Medicine based in genetics provides a route for developing countries to improve healthcare, from primary care, via prevention of genetic diseases to opportunities for new research.

Common gene variants influencing transcript levels can now be reproducibly identified by genome-wide screens. Some of the same variants contribute to clinical traits.

The US government needs to show a commitment to keeping the nation competitive in science and technology.

Procedures for microattribution need to be established by journals and databases so that data producers have an overwhelming incentive to deposit their results in public databases and thereby to receive quantitative credit for the use of every published data accession.

Kevin Davies, the founding editor of Nature Genetics, recalls the perfect storm of events and personalities that governed the launch of the journal 15 years ago and its formative years. The journal offered a high-profile forum for the genetics community—and a bold new direction for Nature Publishing Group.

Over the past several decades, classical molecular biology and cytogenetic techniques have enabled the study of DNA sequence variation at the smallest and largest scales of size. Between these two extremes, and beyond the reach of classical approaches, lay, until very recently, a largely uncharted realm involving variation of intermediate scale. Advances in technology have now begun to reveal this treasure-trove of large-scale, submicroscopic variation, and the impact on the field of human genetics has been dynamic and far-reaching.

A recent study on research creativity suggests it can be identified and encouraged. Above all, creativity occurs in small research groups within large, enabling institutions. Much can be achieved by trusting researchers with funding early in their careers.

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS or WGAS) have made the human the model organism of choice for discovery of genetic variants underlying common diseases and phenotypes. We have organized a conference to discuss the state of this research and the transition from detection to mechanisms and applications.

The successor to the Human Genome Project intends to establish, by international cooperation, an encyclopedic catalog of sequence variants indexed to the human genome sequence.