Each of us carries up to 100 disease related genes

Each of us carries up to 100 of the genes responsible for diseases such as cancer and diabetes, a study has found.

And we have around 300 genes that are so flawed they don’t work at all, according to a ‘catalogue’ of genetic faults compiled by scientists.

Hundreds of researchers from around the world, including British experts, have combined forces to analyse the tiny genetic differences between individuals.

The results will offer the deepest insight yet into the human genome, or genetic blueprint, and could shed new light on what makes us human.

And the 1,000 Genomes Project will also help scientists work out why some people are more susceptible to disease than others.

A human genome

Results from the pilot phase of the research, which involved reading the DNA of more than 800 volunteers from around the world, were published last night in the journals Nature and Science.

They show that, on average, each individual has between 250 and 300 genes that are so flawed they don’t work at all.

Each of us also has around 75 to 100 genes that are known to have links to inherited diseases.

Coming a decade after the draft human genome was first published, the 1000 Genomes Project is a public-private project to map not one individual’s genetic makeup but thousands of genomes.

DNA

The scientists behind it say it is only by mapping the differences in our genetic make-up that we can understand why some people may be more susceptible to inherited disease or other genetic conditions.

According to Dr Richard Durbin of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, the project has only been made possible by improved technologies and the reduced cost of sequencing DNA.

“In the last 10 years DNA sequencing technology has advanced dramatically, so it’s become feasible to systematically sequence many people to find genetic variants and build a catalogue which we can use as a basis for investigations into disease,” he says.