(August 2003) Where’s the best place to hunt for genes that underlie cancer and heart disease? CEO Kari Stefansson and his colleagues at deCODE Genetics believe the relative homogeneity of Iceland’s population should make it a good place to investigate the genetics factors involved in human disease. DeCODE hopes to profit by selling their knowledge to pharmaceutical companies, which can use it to develop diagnostic tests and drugs. Based in Reykjavik, deCODE’s product is genetic information linked, anonymously, to medical records for the country’s 275,000 inhabitants. Isolated populations provide a relatively simple genetic background with which one can investigate the…