There is increasing evidence that genome-wide association (GWA) studies represent a powerful approach to the identification of genes involved in common human diseases. We describe a joint GWA study (using the Affymetrix GeneChip 500K Mapping Array Set) undertaken in the British population, which has examined approximately 2,000 individuals for each of 7 major diseases and a shared set of approximately 3,000 controls. Case-control comparisons identified 24 independent association signals at

Elevated blood pressure is a common, heritable cause of cardiovascular disease worldwide. To date, identification of common genetic variants influencing blood pressure has proven challenging. We tested 2.5m genotyped and imputed SNPs for association with systolic and diastolic blood pressure in 34,433 subjects of European ancestry from the Global BPgen consortium and followed up findings with direct genotyping (N≤71,225 European ancestry, N=12,889 Indian Asian ancestry) and in silico comparison (CHARGE consortium, N=29,136). We identified association between systolic or diastolic blood pressure and common variants in 8 regions near the CYP17A1 (P=7×10−24), CYP1A2 (P=1×10−23), FGF5 (P=1×10−21), SH2B3 (P=3×10−18), MTHFR (P=2×10−13), c10orf107 (P=1×10−9), ZNF652 (P=5×10−9) and PLCD3 (P=1×10−8) genes. All variants associated with continuous blood pressure were associated with dichotomous hypertension. These associations between common variants and blood pressure and hypertension offer mechanistic insights into the regulation of blood pressure and may point to novel targets for interventions to prevent cardiovascular disease.

We have genotyped 14,436 nonsynonymous SNPs (nsSNPs) and 897 major histocompatibility complex (MHC) tag SNPs from 1,000 independent cases of ankylosing spondylitis (AS), autoimmune thyroid disease (AITD), multiple sclerosis (MS) and breast cancer (BC). Comparing these data against a common control dataset derived from 1,500 randomly selected healthy British individuals, we report initial association and independent replication in a North American sample of two new loci related to ankylosing spondylitis, ARTS1 and IL23R, and confirmation of the previously reported association of AITD with TSHR and FCRL3. These findings, enabled in part by increased statistical power resulting from the expansion of the control reference group to include individuals from the other disease groups, highlight notable new possibilities for autoimmune regulation and suggest that IL23R may be a common susceptibility factor for the major 'seronegative' diseases.

Trans-acting genetic variants play a substantial, albeit poorly characterized, role in the heritable determination of gene expression. Using paired purified primary monocytes and B-cells we identify novel, predominantly cell-specific, cis- and trans-eQTL (expression quantitative trait loci). These include multi-locus trans-associations to LYZ in monocytes and to KLF4 in B-cells. Additionally, we observe B-cell specific trans-association of rs11171739 at 12q13.2, a known autoimmune disease locus, to IP6K2 (pB-cell=5.8×10−15), PRIC285 (pB-cell=3.0×10−10) and an upstream region of CDKN1A (pB-cell=2×10−52; pmonocyte=1.8×10−4), suggesting roles for cell cycle regulation and PPARγ signaling in disease pathogenesis. We also find specific HLA alleles forming trans-association with the expression of AOAH and ARHGAP24 in monocytes but not in B-cells. In summary, we demonstrate that mapping gene expression in defined primary cell populations identifies new cell-specific trans-regulated networks and provides insights into the genetic basis of disease susceptibility.