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Genetic Association Information Network (GAIN)

Overview

The Genetic Association Information Network (GAIN) is a public-private partnership of the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health, Inc. (FNIH) and includes partnerships with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the private sector.

GAIN will support a series of Genome-Wide Association Studies (GWAS) designed to identify specific points of DNA variation associated with the occurrence of a particular common disease. Investigators from existing case-control or trio (parent-offspring) studies have been invited to submit samples and data on roughly 2,000 participants for assay of 300,000 to 500,000 single nucleotide polymorphisms designed to capture roughly 80 percent of the common variation in the human genome. Specific genes involved in disease processes can be identified once particular areas of the genome are associated with disease occurrence.

With the sequencing of the human genome, lower cost and more efficient technologies, and the exploration of common patterns of genetic variation through the International Haplotype Map (HapMap) project, we now have the techniques and tools necessary to uncover causal genes that contribute to disease susceptibility, and thus facilitate discovery of new molecular targets for prevention, diagnosis, and treatment.

Applications for access to GAIN genotyping were submitted on May 9, 2006 and projects selected for genotyping were announced at the American Society of Human Genetics annual meeting on October 10, 2006.

The GAIN Kick-off Meeting and Analysis Workshop was held November 29-30, 2006. Visit the Workshop Web site: GAIN Kick-Off Meeting and Analysis Workshop [capconcorp.com].

The next GAIN Analysis Workshop will be held in September or October of 2007, and will be announced on the GAIN Web site at Foundation for the National Institutes of Health: Genetic Association Information Network [fnih.gov].

GAIN Project Director for Foundation for the National Institutes of Health

David Wholley, M.A.
E-mail: wholleyd@mail.nih.gov

NHGRI GAIN Staff:

Teri Manolio, M.D., Ph.D.
E-mail: manoliote@.nih.gov

Lisa Brooks, Ph.D.
E-mail: brooksl@mail.nih.gov

Laura Lyman Rodriguez, Ph.D.
E-mail: rodrigla@mail.nih.gov

Jeffery Struewing, M.D., M.S.
E-mail: struewij@mail.nih.gov

GAIN Web Site

The Genetic Association Information Network (GAIN) [fnih.org]

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Last Updated: August 18, 2008