1000 Genomes: A World of Variation

The 1000 genomes project is working to sequence the genomes of at least 1000 individuals in the hopes of discovering 95% of the variation that occurs in at least 1% of the population. Already, it has located 15 million SNPs, 1 million short indels and 20,000 large structural variants, for a total of over 16 million variations, half previously unknown. Because many diseases are not the product of one gene, such a widespread database of variation could help researches connect many genes and allelic differences to any given gene. Some researchers also hope that by continuing the project past 1000 genomes and including related individuals could help clarify genetic components to these diseases.