More than 99.9% of each person's DNA is identical to that of every other person. It's the less than 0.1% that makes us unique, determining hair color, eye color – and susceptibility to diseases. Many deadly illnesses result from mutations in multiple genes, and scientists have had little idea where in our 3.1-billion-base-pair genome to look. Now, with the completion of the Human Genome Project, the creation of a database of gene variations called single nucleotide polymorphisms [SNPs] and the invention of DNA microarrays that can hold 1 million SNPs, scientists can search for errant genes. Here's how microarrays work, taking the example of schizophrenia research at Harvard and MIT.
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