BioCentury
ARTICLE | Markers

Locus swarm

January 31, 2008 8:00 AM UTC

Although whole-genome association studies in the autoimmune space are increasingly common, their predictive value is still limited. The main reason is that autoimmune diseases have multiple genetic causes, and any one risk factor will only contribute slightly to the disease phenotype.

Nevertheless, pieces of the puzzle are being assembled and companies developing autoimmune therapeutics are watching closely as new loci are published. With enough loci, companies expect to be able to triangulate the findings in order to potentially make therapeutic development decisions...