Family-based designs in the age of large-scale gene-association studies
Nan M. Lairda b✉, Christoph Langeb c
- aDepartment of Biostatistics, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA. laird@hsph.harvard.edu
- bDepartment of Biostatistics, Harvard School of Public Health, #N#Boston, #N#USA
- cDepartment of Biostatistics, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, 02115, Massachusetts, USA
- ✉Corresponding author
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Abstract
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.
TL;DRThe 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. (Semantic Scholar)