Centre d'Etude du Polymorphisme Humain (or the Center for the Study of Human Polymorphism

Polymorphism (biology)

Polymorphism in biology occurs when two or more clearly different phenotypes exist in the same population of a species — in other words, the occurrence of more than one form or morph...

s), now called the Fondation Jean Dausset-CEPH, is an international genetic research center located in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

. It produced a map that includes genetic markers of human chromosomes using a resource of immortalised

Biological immortality

Biological immortality refers to a stable rate of mortality as a function of chronological age. Some individual cells and entire organisms in some species achieve this state either throughout their existence or after living long enough. This requires that death occur from injury or disease rather...

 cell cultures.

Background

In his 2005 addendum to his biography for the 1980 Nobel Prize

Nobel Prize

The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1980/dausset-bio.html, Jean Dausset

Jean Dausset

Jean-Baptiste-Gabriel-Joachim Dausset was a French immunologist born in Toulouse, France. He married Rose Mayoral in 1963, with whom he had two children, Henri and Irène...

 noted that, thanks to his Nobel Prize and a grant from the French Téléthon, he had been able in 1984 to create the Human Polymorphism Study Center (CEPH), which soon after became Foundation Jean Dausset-CEPH. Dausset founded CEPH with the collaboration of Professors Howard Cann and Daniel Cohen.

The CEPH is currently directed by Mark Lathrop

Mark Lathrop

Mark Lathrop is a Canadian Biostatistician. Is Currently the head of the Center for the Study of Human Polymorphisms.-Bibliography:...

.

Human Genome

Numerous collaborators working on the same large families as Dausset had collected for his Nobel Prize-winning studies on the human leukocyte antigen

Human leukocyte antigen

The human leukocyte antigen system is the name of the major histocompatibility complex in humans. The super locus contains a large number of genes related to immune system function in humans. This group of genes resides on chromosome 6, and encodes cell-surface antigen-presenting proteins and...

 system, led to the addition of numerous gene markers and made it feasible to publish the first genetic map and, later on, the first physical map

Physical map

Physical map may refer to:* Physical map , maps that shows countries of the world.* Physical map , showing how much DNA separates two genes and is measured in base pairs, as opposed to a genetic map...

 of the human genome

Human genome

The human genome is the genome of Homo sapiens, which is stored on 23 chromosome pairs plus the small mitochondrial DNA. 22 of the 23 chromosomes are autosomal chromosome pairs, while the remaining pair is sex-determining...

.

New resources

An exhaustive study of human populations around the world has also produced important publications from CEPH. Besides this, DNA samples from sibship

Sibship

Sibship is a term used in epidemiology and public health to refer to the group or number of children produced by a pair of parents. Thus, siblings constitute a sibship....

s of people over 95 years old and a bank of centenarian

Centenarian

A centenarian is a person who is or lives beyond the age of 100 years. Because current average life expectancies across the world are less than 100, the term is invariably associated with longevity. Much rarer, a supercentenarian is a person who has lived to the age of 110 or more, something only...

s now provide a valuable research resource at the Foundation Jean Dausset-CEPH.