Map of chromosome blocks to hasten disease-gene discovery.

LONDON -- An international consortium has launched an ambitious project to speed up the discovery of the variations in the human genome sequence that are involved in disease. The HapMap Project aims to map the alterations in the genomes of varied people, including Africans, East Asians and Europeans.

The human genome sequence that came out of the Human Genome Project told everyone about the identical 99.9 percent of the human genome that can be found in each of us. By contrast, the HapMap Project intends to study the 0.1 percent of the genome that differs from person to person.

The members of the international HapMap Consortium want to identify the segments of the genome …