Some time within the next millennium we will come to an age when every person can have a blood sample taken so that all their functional DNA can be resequenced and every genetic variation in functional genes can be identified to form a genome database. This prediction was made by Professor Peter Wedlund from the University of Kentucky College of Pharmacy, US, during a discussion of pharmacogenomics at the annual meeting of the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists [Las Vegas, US; Dec 1998]. He continued by saying that this database will then be accessible by physicians, pharmacists and genetic counsellors, among others, to improve healthcare in patients with genetic variations.