Epigenome-wide association studies (EWAS): past, present, and future.
@article{Flanagan2015EpigenomewideAS,
title={Epigenome-wide association studies (EWAS): past, present, and future.},
author={James M Flanagan},
journal={Methods in molecular biology},
year={2015},
volume={1238},
pages={
51-63
}
}Just as genome-wide association studies (GWAS) grew from the field of genetic epidemiology, so too do epigenome-wide association studies (EWAS) derive from the burgeoning field of epigenetic epidemiology, with both aiming to understand the molecular basis for disease risk. While genetic risk of disease is currently unmodifiable, there is hope that epigenetic risk may be reversible and or modifiable. This review will take a look back at the origins of this field and revisit the past early…
78 Citations
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A statistical approach that estimates associations between disease risk and all measured epigenetic probes jointly, automatically controlling for both data structure and correlations among probes facilitates better understanding of the underlying epigenetic architecture of complex common disease and is applicable to any kind of genomics data.
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Evidence remains insufficient to confidently identify or exclude rare variants or epigenetic changes in PD, and further analyses are required, using sample sizes in the tens of thousands, extensive functional annotations, and highly targeted hypothesis testing.
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