In this report we briefly review our past experience and some new developments with the GPA assay. Particular emphasis will be placed on two areas that affect the utility of the GPA assay for human population monitoring. The first is our efforts to simplify the GPA assay to make it more generally available for large population studies. The second is to begin to understand some of the characteristics of human hemopoiesis which affect the accumulation and expression of mutant phenotype cells. 11 refs., 4 figs.