Author Archive for Jeff Barrett

As any avid follower of genomics or medical genetics knows, genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have been the dominant tool used by complex disease genetics researchers in the last five years. There’s a very active debate in the field about whether GWAS have revolutionized our understanding of disease genetics or whether they were a waste of money for little tangible gain. No matter where you fall in that spectrum, however, you need only to browse the table of contents of any recent issue of Nature Genetics to see how ubiquitous they are. Since GWAS provide so much of the fodder for unzipping your genome, and in order to help you cut through the hype in the mainstream press coverage of GWAS, I’ve put together a quick primer on how to go straight to the original paper and decide for yourself whether it’s a landmark finding or a dud.

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