The Bioinformatics Blog

The HapMap is a catalog of common genetic variants that occur in human beings. It describes what these variants are, where they occur in our DNA, and how they are distributed among people within populations and among populations in different parts of the world. The International HapMap Project is not using the information in the HapMap to establish connections between particular genetic variants and diseases. Rather, the Project is designed to provide information that other researchers can use to link genetic variants to the risk for specific illnesses, which will lead to new methods of preventing, diagnosing, and treating disease.