title: Polygenetic traits in pancreatic disorders.
abstract: Rapid advances in information and technology provide opportunities to discover the risks or causes for various disorders within individual patients. The availability of new data and new technology has outstripped the conceptual framework of simple disorders,however, and challenges current statistical approaches. The author addresses the issues surrounding study design and sample size for complex genetic traits with special attention to meta-analysis and systems biology. The author concludes that meta-analysis should play a limited role in evaluating studies of complex genetic diseases. Instead, systems biology-based approaches should be developed to integrate multiple, focused, and mechanistic association studies, with the goal of assisting in the risk assessment of patients on a person-by-person basis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, GI Administration, UPMC Presbyterian, Mezzanine Level 2, C Wing, 200 Lothrop Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA. whitcomb@pitt.edu
authors.forename: David C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Whitcomb
mesh_terms: D030342:Genetic Diseases, Inborn / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D015233:Models, Statistical; D020412:Multifactorial Inheritance / Q000235:genetics*; D010182:Pancreatic Diseases / Q000235:genetics*; D012107:Research Design; D018401:Sample Size; D049490:Systems Biology