Genetic Screening

In 1993, the Nobel Prize for chemistry was awarded to Kary Mullis for his development of a technique known as polymerase chain reaction, a method for rapidly isolating and copying any DNA sequence out of a sample that may contain thousands of other genes. This technology is rapidly developing for application not only in eugenics but also for gene manipulation to correct defective gene sequences in many diseases or conditions (nanotechnology). Researchers at Oxford University's Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics announced in 2003 the development of a methodology for concurrently evaluating the functional significance of millions of noncoding polymorphisms that exist in the human genome. This development is expected to contribute greatly to the determination of genetic susceptibility to disease and assessing future health risk through genetic screening.