Press Release No. 12
Berlin
New Tool Scans the Genome for Disease-relevant Variations
Investigating the genetic background of major diseases has now become easier. As part of a European-Japanese Consortium (STAR), Dr. Kathrin Saar and Prof. Norbert Hübner from the MDC Berlin-Buch, Germany, have constructed a genome map with more than 300 different rat strains. The researchers are convinced that this new tool can help understand the development of cardiovascular diseases or diabetes in laboratory rats as well as in humans. The paper of the STAR consortium has been published online in the current issue of the journal Nature Genetics* (Vol. 40, No. 5, pp. 560 – 566, 2008).