How to Read a Genome-Wide Association Study (@GenomesUnzipped)

Jeff Barret (@jcbarret on Twitter) over at Genomes Unzipped (@GenomesUnzipped) has posted a nice guide for the uninitiated on how to read a GWAS paper. Barret outlines five critical areas that readers should pay attention to: sample size, quality control, confounding (including population substructure), the replication requirement, and biological significance. It would be nice to see a follow-up post like this on things to look out for in studies that investigate other forms of human genetic variation such as copy number polymorphism, rare variation, or gene-environment interaction.

And this is also a convenient point for me to mention Genomes Unzipped - a collaborative blog covering topics relevant to the personal genomics industry, featuring posts by several of my favorite bloggers including Daniel MacArthur (of Genetic Future), Luke Jostins (of Genetic Inference), Dan Vorhaus (of Genomics Law Report), Jan Aerts (Saaien Tist), Jeff Barret, Caroline Wright, Katherine Morley, and Vincent Plagnol. GNZ, as it's called, has only been live for about two weeks, but looks like a good one to follow as the personal genomics industry begins to mature over the next few years.


Genomes Unzipped: How to Read a Genome-Wide Association Study