The research of the Physiological Genomics and Medicine Group uses information and technologies from the Human Genome Project to improve understanding of the molecular basis of common diseases and to find new ways of diagnosing these disorders and predicting which individuals will develop them. The approaches used have found new genes underlying the common Metabolic Syndrome which predisposes to late-onset diabetes and coronary heart disease, and also showed that variation in the number of gene copies carried by an individual can be a cause of kidney failure in the common human condition systemic lupus. These findings suggest new ways of disease diagnosis and new targets for drug therapy of these conditions.