The controversy began on 1 February, when Ingham testified before New Zealand's Royal Commission on Genetic Modification, which will determine how to regulate GM organisms. CET-6, 2005.6.

Most diseases - including diabetes and the No. 1 killer, heart disease - are caused by complex interactions of multiple genes and environmental factors, such as diet, exercise and smoking.

People with diverse symptoms including mental retardation, small head size, heart problems and cataracts have genomic rearrangements on the same region of chromosome 1, researchers reported last week.