Also for those who want to read the original articles, The New England Journal of Medicine provides free full text for the review article, Genomewide Association Studies and Human Disease by John Hardy and Andrew Singleton (he spoke at the PAN Forum a number of times ) at: http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/NEJMra0808700

There are also links from this page to 3 perspectives papers on Understanding Genetic Causes of Diseases, that were cited in the New York Times article.

The close of the paper by Joel Hirschhorn (http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/NEJMp0808934)
nicely summed up the value and limitations of genetic research at this point in time...
" New biologic insights do not guarantee a rapid translation into clinical practice; the latter will require great effort by basic, translational, and clinical researchers. The difficulty in translation is not unique to genetic discoveries: nearly a century and three Nobel Prizes separate the determination of the chemical composition of cholesterol from the development of statins. Each discovery of a biologically relevant locus is a potential first step in a translational journey, and some journeys will be shorter than others. With a more complete collection of relevant genes and pathways, we can hope to shorten the interval between biologic knowledge and improved patient care. "

Here's to a short and fruitful journey ....
and SPIT