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Asthma genetics 2006: the long and winding road to gene discovery

Genes & Immunity volume 7, pages 95–100 (2006)Cite this article

Abstract

Asthma and atopy are complex phenotypes that are influenced by both genetic and environmental factors. A review of nearly 500 papers on disease association studies identified 25 genes that have been associated with an asthma or atopy phenotype in six or more populations. An additional 54 genes have been associated in 2–5 populations. Here, we discuss the methods that have been used to identify susceptibility genes for common diseases and overview the status of asthma genetic research. Finally, current challenges and future directions are discussed.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Dr Nancy Cox for helpful discussions and Ms Kathrin Zeller for assistance with preparing this manuscript. This work was supported in part by NIH Grants HL56399, HL66533, HL70831, and HL72414 to CO and by the ‘Forschungsförderung der Ruhr-Universität Bochum Medizinische Fakultät’ (FoRUM) Grants #F377-03 and #F480-05 to SH.

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  1. Department of Human Genetics, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA

    C Ober

  2. Department of Human Genetics, Ruhr-University Bochum, Universitätsstr. 150, Bochum, Germany

    S Hoffjan

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Correspondence to C Ober.

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Supplementary Information accompanies the paper on Genes and Immunity's website (http://www.nature.com/gene)

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Ober, C., Hoffjan, S. Asthma genetics 2006: the long and winding road to gene discovery. Genes Immun 7, 95–100 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.gene.6364284

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