"We're approaching obesity from many points of view, " says Kari Stefansson , chief executive of DeCode.
Today Stefansson has collected DNA samples and records from some 70, 000 volunteers, one-quarter of the population.
"The things that are included will increase exponentially over time, " says deCODE founder KariStefanssonKari Stefansson.
"The frequency is approximately the same in the U.S.--if anything, more common, " Stefansson says.
Stefansson ultimately hopes to sell DeCode's gene-mining software to hospitals so that they can analyze their patients.
Ultimately, Stefansson hopes to sell DeCode's gene-mining software to hospitals so they can analyze their own patients.
Today Stefansson has collected DNA samples and records from some 70, 000 volunteers, a quarter of the population.
"The things that are included will increase exponentially over time, " says deCODE founder Kari Stefansson .
In July, culminating a three-year search, DeCode pinpointed a gene for schizophrenia, an illness that afflicts Stefansson's brother.
Dr. Stefansson said the gene findings have already been confirmed in a large group of Danish osteoporosis sufferers.
But Dr Stefansson and his team are the first to measure the impact of older fathers so precisely.
Stefansson can trace his own ancestry back to the year 1000, when Iceland accepted Christianity and priests began recording births and deaths.
Stefansson overcame objections that one company shouldn't have such sweeping access and won permission for the database, now under construction.
"No other factor is involved which for those of us working in the field is very surprising, " said Dr Stefansson.
Stefansson overcame virulent objections that one company shouldn't have such sweeping access and won permission for the database, now under construction.
But he also remembers being impressed by Stefansson's charisma, so much so that he thought he would probably fund the company.
Stefansson marvels that anyone would try to put together a "finished" genome without a recombination map to serve as a guide.
The scientist Kari Stefansson is unlocking the secrets of diabetes, stroke and other killers by probing the genetics of an entire country.
Dr. Stefansson says that in the future, people could test themselves for bad version of the gene at a relatively young age.
Chalk it up to the initiative of one man, a 6-foot-5 Viking named Kari Stefansson, who founded DeCode Genetics Inc. in Reykjavik two years ago.
Unable to land government grants for his proposal to study Icelanders' genetics, Stefansson left Harvard and founded DeCode Genetics in Reykjavik in 1996.
"This is the first glimpse of what the new genetics is going to give us, " says DeCode Chief Executive Dr. Kari Stefansson .
If successful, this would be "the first example of a gene for a complex disease leading to a drug in the clinic, " says Stefansson.
And it was this location that led to his first contacts with DeCode Genetics founder Kari Stefansson , then a professor at Harvard University.
Chalk it up to the initiative of one man, towering Viking named Kari Stefansson, who founded DeCode Genetics Inc. in Reykjavik two years ago.
Stefansson's company provided a new check on the public and private genome sequences unveiled early in 2001 by returning to the older methods of genetics.
Stefansson's team has used the data to narrow the location of 21 genes for a like number of disorders, including arthritis, Parkinson's disease, obesity and stroke.
For one thing, Stefansson says, DeCode relies on publicly available data for its work, and he felt that it had a duty to publish the map.
"This is an example of how genetic profiling does not subject you to genetic determinism, but liberates you so you can seize control of your life, " says Dr. Stefansson.
The bad version of the gene appears to boost osteoporosis risk by limiting the production of the BMP-2 protein, a key molecular stimulator of bone growth, says Dr. Stefansson.
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