Next generation genetics in allergy.
The past 4 years have seen tremendous developments in human genetics of complex diseases, and single nucleotide polymorphism chips have been developed, which allows testing hundreds of thousands (or even millions) of polymorphisms (SNPs) in a single experiment in an individual.
Abstract
The past 4 years have seen tremendous developments in human genetics of complex diseases. Genetic technology has made quantum leaps in recent years and these technologies are now being applied to medical genetics. Based on knowledge derived from the Human Genome Project and the Haplotype Map Project (HapMap), which mapped genetic variation to the human genome, the socalled single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) chips have been developed. This technology allows testing hundreds of thousands (or even millions) of polymorphisms (SNPs) in a single experiment in an individual. Applying this technology to large populations leads to ‘genomewide association studies’ (or GWAS), as the first wave of these kinds of studies was called. In 2007, the first GWAS on asthma was published and a few more studies focusing on intermediate or asthma-related phenotpyes followed. As of 2010, GWAS data exist for asthma and related traits, immunoglobulin E regulation, eosinophilia, and atopic eczema. The last years of genetics were like living the big gold rush, in which everybody who could afford SNP chips, and had a claim (e.g. a well phenotyped disease population), would dig for the genome and surely find treasures.