Faroe Islands Wants To Sequence The Genes Of Every One Of Its Citizens
The Faroe Islands The Faroe Islands look lovely! Very pretty place. Wikimedia Commons At least, everyone who wants it. But do they want it? Welcome to the Faroe Islands, a beautiful rocky archipelago in the North Atlantic, a Danish territory located about halfway between Iceland and Scotland. It's a small and ancient place, with a population of around only 50,000, but with a distinct language and its own take on Nordic culture. As a result of its relative isolation and small population, it has a very homogenous genetic pool, even by Scandinavian standards, which means it's at risk for niche health problems that wouldn't affect larger and more diverse countries. After several Faroese died from a rare condition called carnitine transporter deficiency (CTD), the country's ministry of health convinced more than half of the entire population of the country to submit blood samples to a giant centralized facility. The country's aim is...