Family-based designs in the age of large-scale gene-association studies.
Both population-based and family-based designs are commonly used in genetic association studies to locate genes that underlie complex diseases. The simplest version of the family-based design--the transmission disequilibrium test--is well known, but the numerous extensions that broaden its scope and power are less widely appreciated. Family-based designs have unique advantages over population-based designs, as they are robust against population admixture and stratification, allow both linkage and association to be tested for and offer a solution to the problem of model building. Furthermore, the fact that family-based designs contain both within- and between-family information has substantial benefits in terms of multiple-hypothesis testing, especially in the context of whole-genome association studies.
Laird
Nan M
NM
Department of Biostatistics, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA. laird@hsph.harvard.edu
Lange
Christoph
C
D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005190:Family; D005821:Genetic Techniques; D005828:Genetics, Population; D015894:Genome, Human; D006239:Haplotypes; D006801:Humans; D015810:Linkage Disequilibrium; D008957:Models, Genetic; D010375:Pedigree; D010641:Phenotype; D019655:Quantitative Trait, Heritable