Guide to the draft human genome

There are a number of ways to investigate the structure, function and evolu tion of the human genome. These include examining the morphology of normal and abnormal chromosomes, constructing maps of genomic landmarks, following the genetic transmission of phenotypes and DNA sequence variations, and ch aracterizing thousands of individual genes. To this list we can now add the elucidation of the genomic DNA sequence, albeit at 'working draft' accurac y. The current challenge is to weave together these disparate types of data to produce the information infrastructure needed to support the next gener ation of biomedical research. Here we provide an overview of the different sources of information about the human genome and how modern information te chnology, in particular the internet, allows us to link them together.