Founder Populations Fuel Gene Discovery  The field of human
genetics has never been "politically correct." The first gene
screens created in the 1970s, for sickle cell disease and Tay-
Sachs disease, targeted African American and Ashkenazi (eastern
European) Jewish populations, respectively. This targeting made
economic sense as these conditions are more prevalent within
these populations. It isn't that genes discriminate, but that
the human tendency to select mates like themselves tends to keep
particular gene variants within certain g  By | April 16, 2001
Today, as genetics morphs into genomics, certain populations are
again playing prominent roles in gene discovery. These "Founder
populations" are modern groups that descend from a few
individuals who left one area to settle another for political,
religious, or social reasons. Founder populations are sought
after for association studies that search for links between
health-related gene variants and SNP patterns (profiles of
single nucleotide polymorphisms,