Leavitt added that a scientist, "using the HapMap, was able to identify a specific gene variant that contributes to an increase in the risk of age-related macular degeneration."

This is an exciting possibility, Leavitt said. "We now move toward possible preventions."

Research is also going ahead in the United Kingdom, Canada and elsewhere to find connections between these variations and diseases, speakers said.

Dr. Panos Deloukas from Cambridge University, United Kingdom, and the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, said in his country tests are going on with 11,000 subjects to search for possible connections between such diseases as hypertension, diabetes and a predisposition to tuberculosis. He also would like to see research into connections with contagious disease, since genetic resistance can develop to those illnesses.

Dr. Yang Huanming (known to colleagues as Dr. Henry Yang), director of the Beijing Genomics Institute in China, said he could not hide his excitement. What the project has achieved will benefit all of the world's people, he said, and will foster global harmony.

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E-mail: bau@desnews.com