The 70th In Silico Megabank Research Seminar will be held on Friday, January 15, 2016. This Time, we will be welcoming Dr. Fumihiko Takeuchi, Research Institute, National Center for Global Health and Medicine as our lecturer, and he will be speaking on “Genome-wide Association Study (GWAS)”.

・Date/Time: January 15 (Friday) 5:00 pm‐6:30 pm
・Venue: Small Conference Room 2(3rd Floor), Tohoku Medical Megabank Building

・Title: Genome-wide Association Study (GWAS): Successful Increase in Scalability for Multi-ethnic Groups and Concerns about Area Difference
・Lecturer: Fumihiko Takeuchi（Research Institute, National Center for Global Health and Medicine）

＊This lecture is transferable as a class in the medical research-related lecture course.

・Abstract: With regard to bio-architecture shown as “DNA−RNA−Protein−Cell−Tissue−Organ−Individual Organism,” genome that DNA codes and diseases representing the health condition of individual organism position at both ends; however, genome study for human diseases is a potent approach to examine diseases and develop treatments. The reason for this possibility is that the relations between genomic variation and diseases can be statistically analyzed (association study) and statistical findings suggest their causal links. In this seminar, large-scale analysis on multi-ethnic groups that enhances the statistical power and area differences in genome which can be a cofounder in association study are introduced.
1. Large-scale GWAS on Blood Pressure
GWAS on blood pressure was conducted targeting Europeans and North Americans, East Asians, South Asians totaling 320,251 participants; 12 related genetic loci were newly identified. Many blood pressure-related SNPs were related to methylation of nearby CpG cites, which suggested that the genomic relations between SNPs and blood pressure are formed by way of methylation.
2. Area Differences in Genes among Japanese People
As an Asian variation project, 34 Asian populations including 8 Japanese populations totaling 3928 participants were analyzed. SNPs information of whole genome enabled categorization of Japanese populations into 9 clusters, and each cluster corresponded to certain areas in Japan. The impact of cluster must be examined as needed for disease association studies.

・Organizer: Yumi Yamaguchi, Masao Nagasaki