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Scientists at Rockefeller University have created a map of gene “shortcuts” to simplify the hunt for disease-causing genes. The investigation, spearheaded by Yuval Itan, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow in the St. Giles Laboratory of Human Genetics of Infectious Diseases, has led to the creation of what he calls the human gene connectome—the full set of distances, routes (the genes on the way), and degrees of separation between any two human genes.
Some diseases are caused by single gene mutations. Current techniques for identifying the disease-causing gene in a patient produce hundreds of potential gene candidates, making it difficult for scientists to pinpoint the single causative gene.
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