Genetic Association Studies

Tutors: Dr Santiago Rodriguez (organiser), Professor George Davey Smith, Professor Ian Day, Dr David Evans, Dr Beate Glaser, Professor Debbie Lawlor, Dr Sarah Lewis, Dr Nic Timpson and others.

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Duration: Two days.

Dates: 18 - 19 March 2010.

Course fee: £360.

Course aims and objectives: The aim of this course is to cover basic issues related to the design, analysis and interpretation of genetic association studies. By the end of the course participants should be able to:

• Design and analyse a genetic association study.
• Identify potential reasons for non replication of genetic association studies.
• Critically appraise genetic association studies.

Who the course is intended for: The course is designed for medical researchers who already have an understanding of epidemiological concepts and methods. Participants should have at least a basic knowledge of statistics, and genetics knowledge at least to the level of our Introduction to Human Genetics Short Course.

Course content: Topics to be covered include: Study design, statistical analysis, confounding by population structure, indirect associations-linkage disequilibrium, haplotypes, population heterogeneity, replication of findings and sample size issues, meta-analysis, biobanks, candidate gene versus whole genome association approach, interpreting results, detecting and minimizing genotyping error, Mendelian randomization.

Suggested pre-course reading: Cordell HJ and Clayton DG. Genetic association studies. Lancet 2005;1121-31.

Hattersley AT and McCarthy MI. What makes a good genetic association study? Lancet 2005;1315-23.

Teaching time: Twelve hours with formal lectures, practical sessions, and group discussion work.

For further information please contact short-course@bristol.ac.uk