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Genetic discrimination occurs if people are treated unfairly because of differences in their DNA that increase their chances of getting a certain disease. For example, a health insurer might refuse to give coverage to a woman who has a DNA difference that raises her odds of getting breast cancer. Employers also could use DNA information to decide whether to hire or fire workers.

The ELSI Research Program is the largest dedicated extramural bioethics research program at the NIH. Its budget has grown from $1.57 million in fiscal year 1990 to over $18 million in fiscal year 2014. The program has awarded over $335 million in research support, and has funded more than 500 projects, which collectively, have resulted in thousands of publications.

"The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Therapeutics for Rare and Neglected Diseases (TRND) program is part of a congressionally funded effort to encourage and speed the development of new drugs for rare and neglected diseases. The federal budget for fiscal 2009 dedicated $24 million to establish this initiative.

Created in April 2003 for 50 years of DNA: A Celebration of the Genome, From the Blueprint to You explores the world of genetics, DNA, the Human Genome Project, the ethical, legal and social implications of genetic research and the future of genomics.

Includes a history and descriptions of the Human Genome Project including a timeline, how to sequence a genome, bioinformatics, genes variation and human history and more.

The Human Genome Project (HGP) was one of the great feats of exploration in history - an inward voyage of discovery rather than an outward exploration of the planet or the cosmos; an international research effort to sequence and map all of the genes - together known as the genome - of members of our species, Homo sapiens. Completed in April 2003, the HGP gave us the ability, for the first time, to read nature's complete genetic blueprint for building a human being.

Sometimes called "molecular photocopying," the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a fast and inexpensive technique used to "amplify" - copy - small segments of DNA. Because significant amounts of a sample of DNA are necessary for molecular and genetic analyses, studies of isolated pieces of DNA are nearly impossible without PCR amplification.

Newborn screening tests use a dried blood sample collected during the first week after birth to measure the presence of disease biomarkers (a measurable substance or characteristic that is indicative of a disease).

A knockout mouse is a laboratory mouse in which researchers have inactivated, or "knocked out," an existing gene by replacing it or disrupting it with an artificial piece of DNA.

A genome-wide association study is an approach that involves rapidly scanning markers across the complete sets of DNA, or genomes, of many people to find genetic variations associated with a particular disease.