The existence of many controversial candidate genes for alcoholism highlights the need for further research on whether or not these genes replicate in large datasets. Results from the Study of Alcohol Addiction: Genetics and Addiction (SAGE) have recently become available through dbGaP. SAGE compares DSM-IV alcohol dependent individuals and non-dependent, unrelated control subjects of European and African American descent. Using the SAGE data, we examined differences in SNP frequencies between cases and controls within previously reported candidate genes. These targeted candidate genes were selected using the Human Genome Epidemiology (HuGE) Navigator, a publicly searchable database established in 2001 of published genetic association and human genome epidemiological studies (Yu et al., 2008). The HuGE Navigator along with the SAGE results facilitated the systematic examination of candidate genes considered in many alcoholism studies over the last decade.
