%0 Journal Article %J Am J Epidemiol %D 2017 %T Current Challenges and New Opportunities for Gene-Environment Interaction Studies of Complex Diseases. %A McAllister, Kimberly %A Mechanic, Leah E %A Amos, Christopher %A Aschard, Hugues %A Blair, Ian A %A Chatterjee, Nilanjan %A Conti, David %A Gauderman, W James %A Hsu, Li %A Hutter, Carolyn M %A Jankowska, Marta M %A Kerr, Jacqueline %A Kraft, Peter %A Montgomery, Stephen B %A Mukherjee, Bhramar %A Papanicolaou, George J %A Patel, Chirag J %A Ritchie, Marylyn D %A Ritz, Beate R %A Thomas, Duncan C %A Wei, Peng %A Witte, John S %K Disease %K Gene-Environment Interaction %K Genetic Predisposition to Disease %K Genome-Wide Association Study %K High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing %K Humans %K Software %X

Recently, many new approaches, study designs, and statistical and analytical methods have emerged for studying gene-environment interactions (G×Es) in large-scale studies of human populations. There are opportunities in this field, particularly with respect to the incorporation of -omics and next-generation sequencing data and continual improvement in measures of environmental exposures implicated in complex disease outcomes. In a workshop called "Current Challenges and New Opportunities for Gene-Environment Interaction Studies of Complex Diseases," held October 17-18, 2014, by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the National Cancer Institute in conjunction with the annual American Society of Human Genetics meeting, participants explored new approaches and tools that have been developed in recent years for G×E discovery. This paper highlights current and critical issues and themes in G×E research that need additional consideration, including the improved data analytical methods, environmental exposure assessment, and incorporation of functional data and annotations.

%B Am J Epidemiol %V 186 %P 753-761 %8 2017 Oct 01 %G eng %N 7 %1 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28978193?dopt=Abstract %R 10.1093/aje/kwx227 %0 Journal Article %J Am J Epidemiol %D 2017 %T Incorporation of Biological Knowledge Into the Study of Gene-Environment Interactions. %A Ritchie, Marylyn D %A Davis, Joe R %A Aschard, Hugues %A Battle, Alexis %A Conti, David %A Du, Mengmeng %A Eskin, Eleazar %A Fallin, M Daniele %A Hsu, Li %A Kraft, Peter %A Moore, Jason H %A Pierce, Brandon L %A Bien, Stephanie A %A Thomas, Duncan C %A Wei, Peng %A Montgomery, Stephen B %K Animals %K Disease %K Gene-Environment Interaction %K Genome-Wide Association Study %K Genomics %K Humans %K Models, Animal %K Sequence Analysis, RNA %X

A growing knowledge base of genetic and environmental information has greatly enabled the study of disease risk factors. However, the computational complexity and statistical burden of testing all variants by all environments has required novel study designs and hypothesis-driven approaches. We discuss how incorporating biological knowledge from model organisms, functional genomics, and integrative approaches can empower the discovery of novel gene-environment interactions and discuss specific methodological considerations with each approach. We consider specific examples where the application of these approaches has uncovered effects of gene-environment interactions relevant to drug response and immunity, and we highlight how such improvements enable a greater understanding of the pathogenesis of disease and the realization of precision medicine.

%B Am J Epidemiol %V 186 %P 771-777 %8 2017 Oct 01 %G eng %N 7 %1 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28978191?dopt=Abstract %R 10.1093/aje/kwx229