COMMENTARIES Realizing the Promise of Genomics in Biomedical Research

and the “genome era ” began. Especially because this tran-sition occurred only days before the 50th anniversary ofWat-son and Crick’s article describing the DNA double helix,2 it led to much discussion regarding the future of genetics and genomics and how they would affect biological explora-tion, health, and even society.3-8 Now, 2 years into the ge-nome era, is biomedical research any closer to that future, and, if so, what does it look like? Current and Future Genome Initiatives Several current genome initiatives afford a look at the fu-ture even as they bring it closer. One is an international ef-fort to create a haplotype map (HapMap) to explore varia-tionwithin the human genome.9,10 Now rapidly approaching completion, the HapMap Project11 has already provided les-sons about geographic distribution of human genome varia