A meeting is being held to address a great need in the areas of single gene disorder, genetics of common disease (e.g. asthma, schizophrenia, etc) and drug side effects due to genetic differences between people. This need is being able to access up to date lists of human gene variation of one form or another as well as accurate and complete records of studies attempting to identify genes responsible for common disease and drug side effects. This would allow those responsible to deliver timely and accurate genetic healthcare and inform research in the area. Systematic and complete collection of this data and its expert curation, ready availability and searchability is not available at this time despite numerous and some large scale, well meaning and expertly curated and designed databases being available. ? ? This meeting will formally initiate the global """"""""Human Variome Project"""""""" to correct this deficiency and prepare for a deluge of faults in genes causing single gene disorder, at least, of some 100 to 1000 faults in each of the 24,000 genes. The meeting brings together representatives relevant to the task and includes bioinformaticians, clinical geneticists, researchers, database curators, diagnostic laboratory heads, common disease variation experts, genome sequencers, funders as well as representatives of all the World Health Organization's (WHO) regions of the world. Eight sessions are essentially planned around these groupings. The meeting has the backing of the WHO, American College of Medical Genetics, OECD, European Commission and UNESCO. Representatives of these and other key organizations such as the American Society of Human Genetics will be attending. ? ? The meeting comprises a majority of invitees, who will develop a series of recommendations in the listed areas. This initiative emerged from the single gene disorder field but the common disease community is well represented and the meeting would not preclude an analogous meeting primarily of that community. ? ? ?
