The International HapMap Project was an organization that aimed to develop a haplotypemap (HapMap) of the human genome, to describe the common patterns of human genetic variation. HapMap is used to find genetic variants affecting health, disease and responses to drugs and environmental factors. The information produced by the project is made freely available for research.
The International HapMap Project is a collaboration among researchers at academic centers, non-profit biomedical research groups and private companies in Canada, China (including Hong Kong), Japan, Nigeria, the United Kingdom, and the United States. It officially started with a meeting on October 27 to 29, 2002, and was expected to take about three years. It comprises three phases; the complete data obtained in Phase I were published on 27 October 2005.[1] The analysis of the Phase II dataset was published in October 2007.[2] The Phase III dataset was released in spring 2009 and the publication presenting the final results published in September 2010.[3]