rise to a new field called personalized medicine that aims to tailor healthcare to individual patients based on their genetic background and other biological features. The widespread availability of low-cost technology for measuring an individual's genetic background has been harnessed by businesses that are now marketing genetic testing directly to the consumer. Genome-wide association studies, for better or for worse, have ushered in the exciting era of personalized medicine and personal genetic testing. The goal of this chapter is to introduce and review GWAS technology, study design and analytical strategies as an important example of translational bioinformatics. We focus here on the application of GWAS to common diseases that have a complex multifactorial etiology.
