In concert with the large-scale genome wide association studies, an extensive and growing range of genomic annotation and biological information is now available, which presents both an opportunity and a challenge in genetic studies. Incorporation of known biology to prioritize and test hypotheses about which genetic variants alter biological processes is the next important step to understand the physiologic mechanisms of nicotine dependence. Though these studies have demonstrated the robust genetic findings with heavy smoking, nicotine dependence, lung cancer and COPD, this chromosome 15 region explains only a small proportion of variance of the disease and the majority of the genetic contributions await discovery. These resources hold the possibility of explaining more of the risk for nicotine dependence and potentially inform better smoking cessation.
