1.   But you can get an idea of what each gene does by comparing the bodies of two organisms known to differ with respect to a certain gene.

2.   Another way to figure out what a gene does is to discover what protein it makes and what that protein looks like, says Peter Kim of the Whitehead.

3.   As a geneticist, I am disposed to believe that genes do many things.

4.   All these genes do is increase predispositions.

5.   But genes do most of their work by instructing cells to manufacture proteins, complex molecules made up of amino acids.

6.   But humans did not seem to have this repair mechanism, he said, so he and his colleagues wanted to find out what this gene did.

7.   But work remains to figure out what the genes do and which ones are responsible for desirable traits.

8.   Companies like Sangamo BioSciences Inc. and Exelixis Inc. have technology for figuring out what genes do, sometimes called functional genomics.

9.   Even so, Waltz and other researchers maintain they are uncovering important clues about how the flawed genes do their dirty work.

10.   He decided to try to find out what the genes did, he said.