Pfizer and Affymetrix are donating millions of dollars in cash and resources to support the NIH's work in studying the genetic causes of diseases. The public/private consortium is called the Genetic Association Information Network. It will look for genetic variations that put people at risk of disease and the environmental factors--such as pollution--that can trigger the ailment. The network will compare the DNA of a thousand healthy people with a thousand sick people, looking for the single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that play a role in disease development.
- read this AP report