Title: "Finding Genes Associated with Alcoholism: If Only It Were That Easy"
Speaker: Leah Wetherill, Department of Medical and Molecular Genetics, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN.
Place: Krannert (KRAN) G016; October 17, 2006, Tuesday, 4:30pm

Abstract

Statisticians are key investigators in genetic studies seeking to identify genes contributing to the risk for complex disease. This talk will provide an overview of the role of the statistician using as an example an ongoing study at Indiana University which seeks to delineate the genetic etiology of alcoholism. A brief description of the sample, a series of extended pedigrees with multiple alcoholic members, will be provided. Ongoing studies are focused on identifying the genes underlying a previously reported linkage result. The challenges of working with large numbers of SNPs and the resulting issues of multiple testing, the evaluation of linkage disequilibrium and genomic structure, and family based association methods will be presented.




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