Meanwhile, greater mobility has increased the spread of infectious diseases across oceans and facilitated global pandemics such as influenza and SARS that threaten developed as well as developing countries. Now, we find ourselves in the midst of yet another transformation in biomedical science. The first decades of the current century may well be remembered for the advances occurring in genomics and in associated areas of science and technology. These advances promise new understandings of disease and more effective ways of tackling ill health.