What's New

Recent News and Events:

PMAGE Director David Hunter was interviewed on National Public Radio's Science Friday in discussing the new genetic factors identified that may increase the risk of developing breast cancer:
http://www.sciencefriday.com/pages/2007/Jun/hour1_060107.html

PMAGE scientists have discovered gene variants that significantly increase the risk for breast cancer in the May 27, 2007 HSPH Press Release:
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/press-releases/

PMAGE Director David Hunter explains a new genetic risk locus for prostate cancer at chromosome 8q24 region in a genome-wide association study in the Cancer Genetic Markers of Susceptibility project:
http://www.dfhcc.harvard.edu/news/news/article/513/334/

PMAGE Director David Hunter explains the significance of the recent identification of prostate cancer gene variants in an Interview with Harvard Public Health NOW on April 27, 2007:
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/now/20070427/index.html

HSPH Mini-Course on Genome-Wide and Pathway-based Association Studies of Complex Diseases, April 27 - June 1, 2007:
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/research/bioinfocore/training/

PMAGE Director David Hunter participates in the first release of data from a whole genome association study of prostate cancer:
http://cgems.cancer.gov/news/pr_2006_10_18.asp

The National Cancer Institute has released data on 310,000 SNPs in 1100 cases of prostate cancer and 1100 controls from the PLCO study. This data release is part of the NCI CGEMS study that David Hunter co-directs. Primary results from the study are freely available on the web at:
http://cgems.cancer.gov
This is the first time the results of a whole genome association study have been released to the scientific community.

Program scientists confirm new gene for type II diabetes.
            Cuilin Zhang, working with Associate Professor Frank Hu of the Department of Nutrition has confirmed that variants in the TCF7L2 gene are associated with risk of type II diabetes in women and men. Using samples from the Nurses’ Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-up study, Zhang showed that each copy of the variant allele was associated with a 1.32-fold (P = 0.0002) and 1.53-fold (P < 0.0001) increased type 2 diabetes risk in women and men, respectively. The results are reported in the journal Diabetes, along with replications of this association from several other groups:
            Zhang C, Qi L, Hunter DJ, Meigs JB, Manson JE, van Dam RM, Hu FB. Variant of transcription factor 7-like 2 (TCF7L2) gene and the risk of type 2 diabetes in large cohorts of U.S. women and men. Diabetes. 2006 Sep;55(9):2645-8.

Inherited genetic variation associated with plasma triglyceride and HDL cholesterol levels.
            Lu Qi, working with Associate Professor Frank Hu of the Department of Nutrition, has shown that variants at the apolipoprotein A1/C3/A4/A5 locus predict levels of plasma lipids:
            Qi L, Liu S, Rifai N, Hunter D, Hu FB. Associations of the apolipoprotein A1/C3/A4/A5 gene cluster with triglyceride and HDL cholesterol levels in women with type 2 diabetes. Atherosclerosis. 2006 Jun 15.

Information on genes improves risk prediction for skin cancer risk.
            Jiali Han shows that incorporating information on variants of the MC1R gene modestly improved the ability to predict risk of skin cancer, compared with the traditional risk factors such as hair color and skin response to sun exposure. This is one of the first demonstrations that incorporating information on common variants in genes can improve risk prediction models:
            Han J, Kraft P, Colditz GA, Wong J, Hunter DJ. Melanocortin 1 receptor variants and skin cancer risk. Int J Cancer. 2006 Oct 15;119(8):1976-84.

Program scientists identify genetic variant as new risk factor for colorectal cancer.
            Working with MIT scientists, Greg Tranah identified a variant in the MGMT DNA repair gene as associated with reduced risk of colorectal cancer:
            Tranah GJ, Bugni J, Giovannucci E, Ma J, Fuchs C, Hines L, Samson L, Hunter DJ. O6-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase Leu84Phe and Ile143Val polymorphisms and risk of colorectal cancer in the Nurses' Health Study and Physicians' Health Study (United States). Cancer Causes Control. 2006 Jun;17(5):721-31.

Program scientist helps identify new risk factor for diabetes and heart disease.
            Immaculata De Vivo, Associate Professor of Epidemiology, collaborated with Eric Rimm of the Department of Epidemiology and investigators in the Deparment of Genetics and Complex Diseases to help identify a new gene variant associated with risk of diabetes and heart disease:
            Tuncman G, Erbay E, Hom X, De Vivo I, Campos H, Rimm EB, Hotamisligil GS. A genetic variant at the fatty acid-binding protein aP2 locus reduces the risk for hypertriglyceridemia, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2006 May 2;103(18):6970-5.

Program statistician Kraft documents the effect of genotyping misclassification on genetic epidemiology studies.
            Working with Usha Govindarajulu, a postdoctoral fellow, Peter Kraft, Assistant Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, shows that genotyping error can have a greater effect than previously appreciated on the results from genetic epidemiology studies:
            Govindarajulu US, Spiegelman D, Miller KL, Kraft P. Quantifying bias due to allele misclassification in case-control studies of haplotypes. Genet Epidemiol. 2006 Nov;30(7):590-601.

A new locus identified for obesity.
            In a collaboration with scientists at Boston University, Christoph Lange, and Nan Laird from the HSPH Department of Biostatistics, and an international team of scientists, David Hunter and others participated in the identification of a potential new genetic risk factor for obesity:
            Herbert A, Gerry NP, McQueen MB, Heid IM, Pfeufer A, Illig T, Wichmann HE, Meitinger T, Hunter D, Hu FB, Colditz G, Hinney A, Hebebrand J, Koberwitz K, Zhu X, Cooper R, Ardlie K, Lyon H, Hirschhorn JN, Laird NM, Lenburg ME, Lange C, Christman MF. A common genetic variant is associated with adult and childhood obesity. Science. 2006 Apr 14;312(5771):279-83.

Program scientist Niu and colleagues developed a novel Coalescence-guided Hierarchical Bayesian (CHB) method for haplotype inference.
            Working with Prof. Jun S. Liu at Department of Statistics, Harvard University, and a postdoctoral fellow, Yu Zhang, Tianhua Niu, Assistant Professor of Epidemiology, developed a novel and efficient algorithm for haplotype inference, called “CHB”, that has merits in performance compared with other popular software programs, such as HAPLOTYPER and PHASE:
            Zhang Y, Niu T, Liu JS. A coalescence-guided hierarchical Bayesian method for haplotype inference. Am J Hum Genet. 2006 Aug;79(2):313-22.

Archived News and Events:

Prof. David Hunter to Lead New Program in Molecular and Genetic Epidemiology, Harvard Public Health NOW, February 20, 2004:
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/now/feb20/

HSPH Mini-Course on Computational Tools and Statistical Methods for SNPs, May 5 - June 2, 2006:
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/research/bioinfocore/training/2006/index.html

Gene × Environment Interaction Seminar Series, 2006 - 2007:
http://www.biostat.harvard.edu/events/seminars/gene.html