Based on a study of nearly 200 Vietnamese families affected by another infectious illness, the bacterial disease leprosy, he and his colleagues have identified a single gene as a strong risk factor for leprosy in children under 16 years old.

ECONOMIST: Genetics and infectious disease: The germ of an idea | The

Its biologists called up two Incyte databases -- LifeSeq, with 3 million human gene fragments containing 850 million DNA xunits, and PathoSeq, with 30 bacterial genomes containing 75 million units.

FORBES: Biology in silico

Zeneca ordered a "wet" copy of a promising gene, in the form of a clone -- a colony of bacterial cells whose members all carry the desired snippet of DNA. These bacterial guinea pigs can then be used to try out antibacterial chemicals.

FORBES: Biology in silico

And a study last year showed that supertasters were better able to fend off some bacterial sinus infections than people who have normal tasting abilities, perhaps because of a protective ability afforded by the supertaster gene.

WSJ: People Who Taste Too Much