Computational analysis of human disease-associated genes and their proteinproducts

The complete genome sequences for human, Drosophila melanogaster and Arabid opsis thaliana have been reported recently. With the availability of comple te sequences for many bacteria and archaea, and five eukaryotes, comparativ e genomics and sequence analysis are enabling us to identify counterparts o f many human disease genes in model organisms, which in turn should acceler ate the pace of research and drug development to combat human diseases. Con tinuous improvement of specialized protein databases, together with sensiti ve computational tools, have enhanced the power and reliability of computat ional prediction of protein function.