Isolated populations and complex disease gene identification
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* Corresponding author: Leena Peltonen leena.peltonen@sanger.ac.uk
1 National Public Health Institute and FIMM, Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland, Helsinki 00300, Finland
2 Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridge CB10 1SA, UK
3 Department of Medical Genetics, University of Helsinki, Helsinki 00014, Finland
Genome Biology 2008, 9:109 doi:10.1186/gb-2008-9-8-109
Published: 26 August 2008Abstract
The utility of genetically isolated populations (population isolates) in the mapping and identification of genes is not only limited to the study of rare diseases; isolated populations also provide a useful resource for studies aimed at improved understanding of the biology underlying common diseases and their component traits. Well characterized human populations provide excellent study samples for many different genetic investigations, ranging from genome-wide association studies to the characterization of interactions between genes and the environment.