Identifying and locating the genes involved in disease are the goals of an intensive international effort called the Human Genome Project. At UT Southwestern that effort is led by Dr. Glen Evans, director of the National Institutes of Health-sponsored Genome Science and Technology Center. But other investigators from across the UT Southwestern campus, from disciplines like diabetes, pediatrics, biochemistry, pathology and oncology, are surveying the landscape looking for landmarks throughout the genome that will point them to answers about human disease and guide them to new approaches to prevention and treatment. Map makers Before researchers can understand how a gene affects disease and health, they have to find it. Sorting through the approximately 100,000 genes that make us human is a time-consuming and painstaking process.
Researchers have to examine the genome one region at a time.
While technology continues to expedite the search, investigators must have maps to make a record of the territory they have covered and to help them plan the next experiment. Dr. Michael Lovett makes gene maps. Lovett believes gene maps like the ones he is building for chromosome 5 will prove very useful for scientists interested in the basis of disease. Investigators in Lovett's lab have identified a number of genes involved in inherited forms of deafness and bone disorders. Finding all these genes and what they control is the ultimate database.