The genomic approach of technology development and large-scale generation of community resource data sets has introduced an important new dimension in biological and biomedical research. Interwoven advances in genetics, comparative genomics, high throughput biochemistry and bioinformatics are combining to attack basic understanding of human life and disease and to develop strategies to combat disease. Genomic research began with The Human Genome Project (HGP), the international research effort that determined the DNA sequence of the entire human genome, completed in April 2003. The HGP also included efforts to characterise and sequence the entire genomes of several other organisms, many of which are used extensively in biological research. Identification of the sequence or function of genes in a model organism is an important approach to finding and elucidating the function of human genes. Integral to the HGP are similar efforts to understand the genomes of various organisms commonly used in biomedical research, such as mice, fruit flies and roundworms. Such organisms are called "model organisms, " because they can often serve as research models for how the human organism behaves. This book presents the latest advances in this fast-moving field.