An International Research Consortium launched an approximately $100 million public-private effort to create the next generation map of the human genome. Called the International HapMap Project, this new venture is aimed at speeding the discovery of genes related to common illnesses such as asthma, cancer, diabetes and heart disease.

Expected to take three years to complete, the HapMap will chart genetic variation within the human genome. By comparing genetic differences among individuals, consortium members believe they can create a tool to help researchers detect the genetic contributions to many diseases. Where the Human Genome Project provided the foundation on which researchers are making dramatic genetic discoveries, the HapMap will begin to make the results of genomic research applicable to individuals.

"The HapMap promises to accelerate medical research around the globe in many different ways," said Yusuke Nakamura, director of the University of Tokyo's Human Genome Center, as well as leader of the RIKEN SNP Center and the Japanese group working on the HapMap. "Not only will it lead to the identification of genes related to disease, it should help to pinpoint genes that influence how individuals react to various medications - discoveries that could improve drug design and lead to the development of diagnostic tools aimed at preventing adverse drug reactions."

To create the HapMap, DNA will be taken from blood samples collected by researchers in Nigeria, Japan, China and the United States. Initially, researchers will work with samples from between 200 and 400 people in widely distributed geographic regions. Samples will be collected from the Yorubas in Nigeria, Japanese, Han Chinese and U.S. residents with ancestry from northern and western Europe. A very careful sampling strategy has been developed to ensure that participants can give full informed consent. No medical or personal identifying information will be obtained from the people providing the samples. The samples, however, will be identified by the population from which they were collected.

The samples will be processed and then stored at the Coriell Institute for Medical Research in Camden, N.J., a non-profit biomedical research center that specializes in storing living cells and making them available to scientists for further study.

Researchers from academic centers, non-profit biomedical research groups and private companies in Japan, the United Kingdom, Canada, China and the United States will analyze the samples to create the HapMap. The results will be made quickly and freely available on the Internet in keeping with the data release approach of the Human Genome Project.

Public funding for the effort will be provided by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) in Tokyo; Genome Canada in Ottawa and Genome Quebec in Montreal; the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology, and the Natural Science Foundation of China, all in Beijing; and the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Md. The SNP Consortium (TSC) in Deerfield, Ill., will coordinate private funding, while The Wellcome Trust in London will provide charitable funding for the United Kingdom portion of the project.