human genome project
Understanding and curing genetic diseases is the ultimate goal of human geneticists. As discussed in the Human Genetics: Diagnosis and Treatment Advanced concept, gene therapy is the insertion of a new gene into an individuals cells and tissues to treat a disease, replacing a mutant disease-causing allele with a normal, non-mutant allele. Of course, the findings of the Human Genome Project are significant in determining the disease-causing alleles. Geneticists must know which are mutant alleles and which are non-mutant or "normal" alleles. They must also be able to identify alleles that are not just associated with a particular disease phenotype, but cause a disease phenotype. And of course, scientists must develop and test the technology to replace mutant alleles.