The genome is more than a string of genes. Take a look .
Gene therapy See how gene therapy can help fight disease.
The Associated Press Mutations in the human genome predispose or cause at least 1,500 diseases, ranging from diabetes and asthma to cancer and heart attack. But why these mutations prompt these diseases is imperfectly understood, and patients suffer and die for reasons that still befuddle medical science. The connection between gene mutation and disease will become much clearer now, experts say, with the mapping and sequencing of the entire human genome. They believe that new understanding eventually will lead to dramatic new treatments. The complete genome opens up the real prospect of developing medical treatments tailor-made for individual patients, of developing drugs that attack only the disease and leave the rest of the body alone, and of predicting, perhaps at birth, which person is most likely to develop which disease and offering a way to prevent it.