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

Thinner volunteers were found to be more likely to carry the protective form of the gene, while the other version was more common in obese people.

BBC: NEWS | Health | Gene that makes you eat too much

DeCode (nasdaq: DCGN - news - people ) said in its statement this morning that one form of the gene predisposed people to become fat, while another predisposed them to be thin.

FORBES: DeCode Finds A Fat Gene

Rosanne and two other scientists decided to block the gene for apolipoprotein B, the main component in the form of cholesterol that contributes to heart attacks.

FORBES: Degunker

Polymeropoulos, when he was at the U.S. National Institutes of Health, pinpointed a gene that causes a rare inherited form of the disease by spawning mutations in a protein called alpha-synuclein.

FORBES: Health

Studying these creatures, Dr Zoghbi saw that the rodents with a mutant form of the gene were affected similarly to people: they developed tremors and spasticity in their forelimbs, became susceptible to seizures and suffered breathing problems.

ECONOMIST: Neuroscience (1)

The finding that may cause most controversy, however, is that in the Asian groups there has been strong selection for one variant of a gene that, in a different form, is responsible for Gaucher's disease.

ECONOMIST: Human evolution

The mutated form of a gene called complement factor H may cause the immune system to go awry, resulting in too much inflammation in the eye.

FORBES: Magazine Article