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The effect of HapMap on cardiovascular research and clinical practice.

Skelding KA, Gerhard GS, Simari RD, Holmes DR

Center for Health Research, 100 North Academy Lane, Danville, PA 17822, USA. kaskelding@geisinger.edu

The Haplotype Genetic Map (HapMap) is an invaluable resource to the cardiovascular researcher, enabling a decrease in cost and an increase in the efficiency and speed of discoveries in the laboratory. As cardiologists, we need to understand the vocabulary of genomics because the translation of scientific findings using HapMap could provide insight for improved care and therapeutic guidance of our patients. Genomics is the evaluation of genes as a dynamic system, in which genes interact to influence biologic pathways, networks and physiology. The HapMap promises to increase the efficiency of genomics in identifying cardiovascular-disease-related genes that could become vital for choosing relevant tests and providing preventative and curative therapies. In this Review, the HapMap will be described, to provide insight into the relevance of this work to cardiovascular practice, to clinical research in cardiovascular disease and to future discoveries in diagnostic and therapeutic modalities.

Published 1 March 2007 in Nat Clin Pract Cardiovasc Med, 4(3): 136-42.
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