Iceland is Valhalla for geneticists. Virtually all the country’s 270 000 inhabitants are descended from settlers who colonised the island in the ninth century AD. Its genealogical records stretch back a thousand years and its medical records for a hundred, so the country is uniquely placed for tracing inherited diseases.
For trying to exploit this resource, Kari Stefansson has gained a reputation as a bad boy of genetics. After twenty years working as a neuroscientist in the US, he set up deCODE Genetics and persuaded the Icelandic government to sell the company exclusive access to the nation’s health records.…
