Mammalian Genomics

Hardly any other area of science has experience such dramatic development as genomics during the last 15-20 years. While genomics of many pro- and eukaryotic species progressed repidly, mammalian genomics, despite the obvious complexity, was in the centre of development. Over the last several years, the Human Genome Project abandoned its initial academic status and became a human endeavour comparable with the flight to the moon and other extraordinary human achievements. Data from other mammalian genomes such as mouse and rat have been published recently; others for dog, cattle, chimpanzee and several more will soon follow. Incredible and unprecedented opportunities for the comparative analysis of genomes brought by these huge international efforts have already started to yield new results, and will certainly do much more in the near future.