We illustrate here some properties of published GWAS in biomedicine from the NHGRI GWAS catalog (accessed 20 September 2009). Of 396 published GWAS, there were 238 studies reporting 693 SNP associations with p < 5×10−8. These associations were for 59 human diseases and 61 other quantitative traits. The diseases with the greatest number of associations were Crohn’s disease, type 1 diabetes mellitus, type 2 diabetes mellitus, prostate cancer, and rheumatoid arthritis. The top quantitative traits were height, lipid levels (triglycerides and HDL and LDL cholesterol), QT interval, and body mass index.
