Your Health -- Deciphering Chromosome 21

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CNN's Eileen O'Connor reports on implications of the scientific success in mapping chromosome 21. Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K
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May 12, 2000
Web posted at: 12:34 p.m. EDT (1634 GMT)

ATLANTA (CNN) -- Researchers in Japan and Germany are gaining insight into the smallest chromosome in the human genome -- Chromosome 21.

The scientists recently announced that they had sequenced Chromosome 21, which has been linked to Down Syndrome, one form of Alzheimer's, and several types of cancer.

According to Dr. Robert Waterston, chairman of the department of genetics at Washington University in St. Louis, "each chromosome is like a volume of an encyclopedia." Sequencing the genome becomes particularly useful in helping scientists learn more about genetic disorders.

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Nature
Human Genome Sequencing
National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI)
The Human Genome Project
The Human Genome Organization (HUGO)

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