Researchers propose deep trawl of DNA to help uncover the causes of ME/CFS (Simon McG blog)

https://twitter.com/user/status/1155093363894493184

 

Update [to blog]:
Eric Lander highlighted further GWAS successes at a recent lecture at the Broad Institute (which is based at Harvard and MIT).

• Heart disease. Analysis of significant SNPs revealed that HDL-cholesterol is not protective (which explains why the $5 billion investment by the Pharma industry in drugs that increase HDL came to nothing). Instead, they reveal that triglycerides are a risk. It turns out that HDL is negatively correlated with triglycerides so the correlation of HDL with heart disease was correlation not causation.

• Inflammatory bowel disease. 10 new significant biological pathways identified. Autophagy, where the body kills off old cells, recycling their contents, and TGF beta signalling, were identified as therapeutic targets.

• Alzheimer’s disease. Microglia, the immune cells of the brain, have been shown to play a key role in the disease.

• Obesity. GWAS shows that thermogenesis (where “brown fat” cells burn off fat to produce heat) is an important pathway impacting on BMI.

 

When is the GWAS likely to happen?

 

The question is still 'Is' rather than 'When is', but if funded my guess would be from 2021 onwards, for perhaps three years.