[Impact of human genome analysis on the future medicine]

The human genome project is considered to be the most important project in biology and medicine. The discovery of an entire human genes through this project should revolutionize biological medicine including molecular diagnosis of various diseases and development of novel treatment. The entire genome DNA sequence is expected to be completed by 2003, and 90% of the genes will be identified by 2001. The information will accelerate discovery of genes susceptible to or causing various diseases and contribute to screening of novel drugs that target these disease-gene products. In addition, the field of "phamacogenetics" will become more important. Phamacogenetic studies focusing on inherited variations in drug metabolism and polymorphisms in drug metabolisms of the genes encoding drug-metabolizing enzymes are also very important to determine an appropriate dose of certain drugs to obtain the maximum effect and avoid serious toxicity. In this regard, the recent world-wide effort of the SNP (single nucleotide polymorphism) project in which scientists attempt to discover 100,000 genetic variations in our genome will generate very variable resources. In this review, I will be describing the recent progress and future direction of human genome analysis and its impact on medicine and pharmacology.