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American Journal of Epidemiology Advance Access originally published online on June 4, 2009
American Journal of Epidemiology 2009 170(3):269-279; doi:10.1093/aje/kwp119
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American Journal of Epidemiology Published by Oxford University Press 2009.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/uk/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Genome-Wide Association Studies, Field Synopses, and the Development of the Knowledge Base on Genetic Variation and Human Diseases

Muin J. Khoury, Lars Bertram, Paolo Boffetta, Adam S. Butterworth, Stephen J. Chanock, Siobhan M. Dolan, Isabel Fortier, Montserrat Garcia-Closas, Marta Gwinn, Julian P. T. Higgins, A. Cecile J. W. Janssens, James Ostell, Ryan P. Owen, Roberta A. Pagon, Timothy R. Rebbeck, Nathaniel Rothman, Jonine L. Bernstein, Paul R. Burton, Harry Campbell, Anand Chockalingam, Helena Furberg, Julian Little, Thomas R. O'Brien, Daniela Seminara, Paolo Vineis, Deborah M. Winn, Wei Yu and John P. A. Ioannidis

Correspondence to Dr. Muin J. Khoury, Office of Public Health Genomics, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 4770 Buford Highway NE, Atlanta, Georgia 30341 (e-mail: mukl{at}cdc.gov).

Received for publication June 6, 2008. Accepted for publication April 15, 2009.

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have led to a rapid increase in available data on common genetic variants and phenotypes and numerous discoveries of new loci associated with susceptibility to common complex diseases. Integrating the evidence from GWAS and candidate gene studies depends on concerted efforts in data production, online publication, database development, and continuously updated data synthesis. Here the authors summarize current experience and challenges on these fronts, which were discussed at a 2008 multidisciplinary workshop sponsored by the Human Genome Epidemiology Network. Comprehensive field synopses that integrate many reported gene-disease associations have been systematically developed for several fields, including Alzheimer's disease, schizophrenia, bladder cancer, coronary heart disease, preterm birth, and DNA repair genes in various cancers. The authors summarize insights from these field synopses and discuss remaining unresolved issues—especially in the light of evidence from GWAS, for which they summarize empirical P-value and effect-size data on 223 discovered associations for binary outcomes (142 with P < 10–7). They also present a vision of collaboration that builds reliable cumulative evidence for genetic associations with common complex diseases and a transparent, distributed, authoritative knowledge base on genetic variation and human health. As a next step in the evolution of Human Genome Epidemiology reviews, the authors invite investigators to submit field synopses for possible publication in the American Journal of Epidemiology.

association; database; encyclopedias; epidemiologic methods; genome, human; genome-wide association study; genomics; meta-analysis

Abbreviations: dbGaP, Database on Genotypes and Phenotypes; GWAS, genome-wide association studies; HuGE, Human Genome Epidemiology; HuGENet, Human Genome Epidemiology Network; NAT2, N-acetyltransferase type 2; STREGA, Strengthening the Reporting of Genetic Association Studies

Editor's note: This article also appears on the Web site of the Human Genome Epidemiology Network (http://www.cdc.gov/genomics/hugenet/default.htm).


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