International Team Identifies 127 Glaucoma Genes in Large Genome-Wide Association Study

Article: International Team Identifies 127 Glaucoma Genes in Largest Study of Its Kind
Source: Massachusetts Eye and Ear, via NEI
Published: February 24, 2021

An international team of researchers recently identified 44 new gene loci and confirmed 83 previously known gene loci reported to be linked with glaucoma in a large genome-wide association study comparing the genes of 34,179 people with the disease to 349,321 control subjects. It is the largest study of its kind to date and the first cross-ancestry glaucoma genome-wide association study to include data of people from Europe, Africa, and Asia (in addition to data from people of European, African, and Asian ancestry). While glaucoma is an eye disease that predominantly affects people with African and Asian ancestry, previous studies have looked mostly at the genes of people of European ancestry. By gathering data from such a large and diverse pool of subjects, this cross-ancestry study improves upon the fine-mapping of causal variants linked with glaucoma as well as provides new avenues of research, via the newly identified genes, that could implicate previously unknown biological processes leading to the disease. In other words, the exceptionally large size and diversity provided by this study improves the precision of genetic associations of the disease.

Personal commentary: It is a lovely coincidence that this article appears chronologically right after the previous one in the blog as an example of the value of international collaboration in the collective effort of research. This particular research team comprised of contributions from researchers in Australia, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Finland, Germany, Singapore, Japan, Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, Switzerland, Tanzania and the United States. Where possible, my commentaries are scheduled by date of publication of the source article, but I am always happily surprised when these coincidences in sequence speak by and for themselves.

My rating of this study: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐