A genetic study focused on the Maronites of Lebanon revealed no noticeable or significant genetic differentiation between the Greek Orthodox Christians, Greek Catholic Christians, Maronites, Sunni Muslims, Shiite Muslims, and Druze of the region. But Ruffié and Taleb (1965) found significant differences of blood markers between ethno-religious groups, particularly the Greek Orthodox in Lebanon, based on a substantially larger sample of Greek Orthodox and Greek Catholic individuals within a broader research project—but their research ignored other related 'Melkite-Antiochian' Greek Orthodox and Greek Catholic communities in Syria, Southeastern Turkey and Northern Israel. A study by Makhoul et al. (2010) on Beta Thalassemia Heterogeneity in Lebanon found out that the thalassemia mutations in Lebanese Christians are similar to the ones observed in Macedonia, Greece which "may confirm the presumed Macedonian origin of certain Lebanese Christians".