1000 Genomes Project

An international research consortium has announced it will sequence the complete DNA of 1,000 people.  The goal is to "catalog [DNA] variants that are present at 1 percent or greater frequency in the human population". The project will focus not only on mapping single-letter differences in DNA, but also "structural variants" such as DNA rearrangements, deletions or duplications of segments.

According to ScienceDaily: "It is important to understand the small fraction of genetic material that varies among people because it can help explain individual differences in susceptibility to disease, response to drugs or reaction to environmental factors."