title: Athlome Project Consortium: a concerted effort to discover genomic and other "omic" markers of athletic performance.
abstract: Despite numerous attempts to discover genetic variants associated with elite athletic performance, injury predisposition, and elite/world-class athletic status, there has been limited progress to date. Past reliance on candidate gene studies predominantly focusing on genotyping a limited number of single nucleotide polymorphisms or the insertion/deletion variants in small, often heterogeneous cohorts (i.e., made up of athletes of quite different sport specialties) have not generated the kind of results that could offer solid opportunities to bridge the gap between basic research in exercise sciences and deliverables in biomedicine. A retrospective view of genetic association studies with complex disease traits indicates that transition to hypothesis-free genome-wide approaches will be more fruitful. In studies of complex disease, it is well recognized that the magnitude of genetic association is often smaller than initially anticipated, and, as such, large sample sizes are required to identify the gene effects robustly. A symposium was held in Athens and on the Greek island of Santorini from 14-17 May 2015 to review the main findings in exercise genetics and genomics and to explore promising trends and possibilities. The symposium also offered a forum for the development of a position stand (the Santorini Declaration). Among the participants, many were involved in ongoing collaborative studies (e.g., ELITE, GAMES, Gene SMART, GENESIS, and POWERGENE). A consensus emerged among participants that it would be advantageous to bring together all current studies and those recently launched into one new large collaborative initiative, which was subsequently named the Athlome Project Consortium.
authors.affiliation: FIMS Reference Collaborating Centre of Sports Medicine for Anti-Doping Research, University of Brighton, Eastbourne, United Kingdom; y.pitsiladis@brighton.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Yannis P
authors.initials: YP
authors.lastname: Pitsiladis
authors.affiliation: Department of Longevity and Health, Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology, Tokyo, Japan;
authors.forename: Masashi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tanaka
authors.affiliation: Institute of Sport, Exercise, and Active Living (ISEAL), Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia;
authors.forename: Nir
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Eynon
authors.affiliation: Human Genomics Laboratory, Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana;
authors.forename: Claude
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bouchard
authors.affiliation: Murdoch Childrens Research Institute and University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia;
authors.forename: Kathryn N
authors.initials: KN
authors.lastname: North
authors.affiliation: Department of Exercise and Sport Science, Manchester Metropolitan University, Crewe, United Kingdom;
authors.forename: Alun G
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Williams
authors.affiliation: Division of Exercise Science and Sports Medicine, Department of Human Biology, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South African;
authors.forename: Malcolm
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Collins
authors.affiliation: Health and Exercise Sciences Research Group, University of Stirling, Stirling, United Kingdom;
authors.forename: Colin N
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6226-8131
authors.initials: CN
authors.lastname: Moran
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, Michigan;
authors.forename: Steven L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Britton
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Health and Sports Science, Juntendo University, Chiba, Japan;
authors.forename: Noriyuki
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Fuku
authors.affiliation: Stanford University Medical Center, Stanford, California;
authors.forename: Euan A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Ashley
authors.affiliation: Ergophysiology Research Laboratory, Department of Sport Medicine and Biology of Physical Activity, University of Athens, Athens, Greece;
authors.forename: Vassilis
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Klissouras
authors.affiliation: School of Doctorate Studies & Research, Universidad Europea de Madrid, Madrid, Spain;
authors.forename: Alejandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lucia
authors.affiliation: Sport Technology Research Centre, Volga Region State Academy of Physical Culture, Sport and Tourism, Kazan, Russia;
authors.forename: Ildus I
authors.initials: II
authors.lastname: Ahmetov
authors.affiliation: VU University and VU Medical Centre, Amsterdam, Netherlands; and Anti-Doping Lab Qatar (ADLQ), Doha, Qatar.
authors.forename: Eco
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: de Geus
authors.affiliation: Anti-Doping Lab Qatar (ADLQ), Doha, Qatar.
authors.forename: Mohammed
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Alsayrafi
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D054874:Athletic Performance; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000378:metabolism*; D044127:Epigenesis, Genetic; D005060:Europe; D023281:Genomics / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D014015:Tissue Banks
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers
keywords: genetics; performance; sports genomics