GWA studies rapidly evaluate millions of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) throughout the genome and therefore have the potential for identifying key variants in complex diseases. Since the publication of the first GWA study in 2005 (Klein et al., 2005), over 1000 GWA studies have established genetic associations of more than 200 traits, many of which are complex diseases. SNP-trait associations from published GWA studies are readily available to investigators through “A Catalog of Genome-Wide Association Studies” by the National Human Genome Research Institute (www.genome.gov/gwastudies). More recently, several datasets from GWA studies have also become available to the scientific community through the database of Genotypes and Phenotypes (dbGaP) maintained by NCBI (Mailman et al., 2007). These online scientific databases provide opportunities for investigators to access GWA data.
