INVITED AND SPECIAL SESSIONS
Thursday, October 27
11:00 AM-1:00 PM
Concurrent Invited Sessions II (26-32)
SESSION 26 - Genomewide Association Analysis: Finding the Needles in the Haystack
Hall E
Moderator: David R. Cox, Perlegen Sciences, Inc., Mountainview, CA
The ultimate utility of association studies for improving the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of common human diseases will depend largely on the development of innovative strategies. Although some novel analytical approaches and experimental designs have been developed, it is unlikely that any single approach will be uniformly most powerful. Instead, an optimal strategy will most likely involve a combination of techniques. Such research will require the multidisciplinary expertise of statisticians, computer scientists, engineers, geneticists, biochemists, and clinicians. In this session, we will discuss some of the analytical challenges associated with genomewide association studies. We will also introduce potential solutions including methods specifically designed for detecting main effects, gene-gene interactions, as well as Bayesian approaches. It is likely that a combination of all such approaches will lead to the detection of disease susceptibility genes from genomewide association studies.
11:00 AM Challenges for genomewide association analysis. Marylyn Ritchie, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN.
11:25 AM Choices and consequences of marker selection in whole genome association studies. Lon R. Cardon, University of Oxford, United Kingdom.
11:50 AM A functional genome scan to survey the genetic landscape of common disease: Insights into rheumatoid arthritis risk. Ann Begovich, Celera Diagnostics, Alameda, CA.
12:15 PM False discovery or missed discovery? Using linkage to improve power of association tests. Kathryn M. Roeder, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA.
12:40 PM Validating results of genomewide association studies. David R. Cox.
