application of pharmacogenetics depend on scientific research, but that policy and administration must provide incentives and restraints to ensure the most productive and just use of this technology. Involving the public in ethical oversight and other ways can improve public trust in public health genomics as well as acceptability of initiatives and ensuring that access to the benefits of genomics research is equitable. Genetic susceptibility to disease Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are single bases within a gene sequence that differ from that gene's consensus sequence, and are present in a subset of the population. SNPs may have no effect on gene expression, or they can change the function of a gene completely. Resulting gene expression changes can, in some cases, result in disease, or in susceptibility to disease (e.g., viral or bacterial infection). Some current tests for genetic diseases include: cystic fibrosis, Tay–Sachs disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Huntington's disease, high cholesterol, some rare cancers and an inherited susceptibility to cancer. A select few are explored below. Herpesvirus and bacterial infections Since the field of genomics takes into account the entire genome of an organism, and not simply its individual genes, the stud of latent viral infection falls into this realm. For example, the DNA of a latent herpesvirus integrates into the host's chromosome and propagates through cell replication, although it is not part of the organism's genome, and was not present at the birth of the individual. An example of this is found in a study published in Nature, which showed that mice with a latent infection of a herpesvirus were less susceptible to bacterial infections. Murine mice were infected with murine gammaherpesvirus 68 and then challenged with the Listeria monocytogenes bacterium. Mice that had a latent infection of the virus had an increased resistance to the bacteria, but those with a non-latent strain of virus had no change in susceptibility to the bacteria. The study went on to test mice with murine cytomegalovirus, a member of the betaherpesvirinae subfamily, which provided similar results. However, infection with human herpes simplex virus type-1 (HSV-1), a member of the alphaherpesvirinae subfamily, did not provide increased resistance to bacterial infection. They also used Yersinia pestis (the causative agent of the Black Death) to challenge mice with a latent infection of gammaherpesvirus 68, and they found the mice did have an increased resistance to the bacteria. The suspected reason for this is that